Pedro Feliciano
If you were not around to watch New York Mets baseball in the early 1990s, you missed out on Jeff Innis. You missed out on the career of one of the best middle relievers in Mets history.
Really, the side-winding submariner Innis was the epitome of a middle reliever. He was so much so, he set records of which many are unaware.
In 1992, he was the Mets rankings for most relief appearances in a season. His mark of 76 appearances would set the Mets record for appearances in a season. The previous mark was when Innis made 69 appearances in 1991.
Keep in mind, many of Innis appearances lasted more than an inning. For example, 31 of his 76 appearances in 1992 were over an inning. That’s just the type of reliever he was. He took the ball as often as needed and gave the team all he could give and likely much more.
During that time, Innis set the Major League record for appearances with recording a win or save. That streak of 60 appearances ended when he got the Opening Day win in 1992.
He wouldn’t set another record for appearances in 1993. Instead, he’d settle for what was then third all-time with 67. After that 1993 season, Innis’ Major League career was over.
Innis walked off the field a winner. He pitched the final two innings of the last game of the season to wrap up the Mets 7-1 win over the expansion Florida Marlins.
He would spend his entire seven year career with the Mets. In his career, he was 10-20 with a 3.05 ERA, five saves, and a 1.272 WHIP. Impressively, he had a 120 ERA+.
After Innis left the Mets, everything changed.
We’d see a World Series be canceled due to a strike. There was the ensuing steroid era and all the other little and big scandals along the way.
Mostly, relievers were used differently and much more frequently. Now, we even see relievers starting games. From there, Innis began to fade from memory.
In 1999, Turk Wendell and Armando Benitez topped his appearances record. Benitez would tie his mark in 2000 with Wendell surpassing him again. We’d eventually see other Mets surpass Innis with the late Pedro Feliciano now being the Mets reliever with the top three single season appearance records.
Sadly, like Feliciano, Innis has passed away young. The Mets have lost two sidewinding and durable relievers who had made an indelible mark on Mets history.
Indeed, Innis is still in the Mets record books. He’s ninth all-time for relief appearances and 13th all-time for games finished.
More than that, there’s the memories from the fans. For me, in addition to seeing him nearly everyday for that three year stretch, my dad taught me to keep score at Shea Stadium in Mets Magazine with Innis on the cover.
Innis made an indelible mark on Mets history. More importantly, he resonated with Mets fans. While he’s gone, he will never be forgotten.
Eduardo Perez announced the shocking and sad news that former Mets reliever Pedro Feliciano died in his sleep. While the cause of death was not known, we do know on the eve of what proved to be his final MLB season, Feliciano was diagnosed with a non-life threatening heart condition causing an irregular heartbeat.
We are deeply saddened to hear about the passing of Pedro Feliciano. ?https://t.co/Y1DARwiMbc
— New York Mets (@Mets) November 8, 2021
The irony is with the New York Mets you never had to question Feliciano’s heart. The man was always at the ready, and it would eventually lead to him being dubbed by Gary Cohen as Perpetual Pedro. Time and again, Feliciano took the ball, and he would deliver.
With the passing of Feliciano, the Mets have lost the greatest LOOGY in team history. He may go down as one of if not the best ever. Consider that in a two year span he made more appearances than any left-handed reliever had made in MLB history. In fact, he was the only MLB reliever in history to put up three straight seasons with 85+ appearances.
The reason this happened was because Feliciano was both great and durable (just don’t tell that to the New York Yankees). He was almost always great. Case-in-point, in his first ever postseason appearance, he relieved John Maine in the fifth inning of the first game of the 2006 NLDS to strike out should be Hall of Famer Kenny Lofton to escape a jam and help the Mets win the game.
Overall, he had a 1.93 ERA that postseason getting the Mets out of a number of difficult spots. Feliciano would actually be the winner of the series closing Game 3 of that NLDS. That would make him the very last Mets pitcher to win a clinching game in the Shea Stadium era of the franchise.
He is a figure who should have a much higher stature in franchise history than he already has. In fact, only John Franco has appeared in more games as a reliever. Feliciano’s .212 batting average against and .263 wOBA against left-handed batters are the best in franchise history, both by significant margins.
When we lost Feliciano, we truly lost a great Met. In many ways, he was the quintessential Met. This was a player overlooked by everyone else, and he went out there and gave it his all. He was truly great at what he did even if the fame he should have received was fleeting. While there were other stops, at least in terms of the Major Leagues, Feliciano was only a Met.
May God bless Feliciano and his family. While that certainly includes the millions of Mets fans now in mourning, that especially applies to the wife and children who lost a great pitcher and better man.