Pedro Feliciano, a relief pitcher who was the workhorse of the Mets’ bullpen for five years– including 3 straight seasons in which he led the big leagues in appearances, earning him the nickname Continuous Pedro– died on Monday at his house in Puerto Rico. He was 45.
The Mets revealed his death. No cause was given, but Feliciano had actually discovered in 2013 that he had an unusual genetic heart condition.Feliciano, a left-hander,
signed up with the Mets after seven years in the minor leagues and went on to invest his entire nine-year big league career with them. He won 22 games, lost 21 and had a 3.33 made run typical in a career that stretched from 2002 to 2013. He pitched an overall of 484 video games, the second most in Mets history after the 695 appearances by the All-Star reliever John Franco.Feliciano was utilized mostly against left-handed players and held them to a. 211 typical, but he
was not just a left-handed expert. “When you speak about relievers in baseball, in my mind, he’s at the leading because he can get out both lefties and righties, “the Mets ‘general supervisor, Omar Minaya, said in 2007. Feliciano led the majors in games pitched with 86 in 2008, 88 in 2009 and 92
in 2010– a single-season overall that had formerly been exceeded just three times in big league history. From 2006 to 2010, he appeared in 408 video games and had a 3.09 E.R.A.His finest season was 2006, when the Mets finished first in the National League East: He published a 7-2 record and a 2.09 earned
run average in 64 games.”I never needed to look down to the bullpen to see if Pedro was ready,”Willie Randolph, who handled the Mets from 2005 to 2008, stated in a statement.”He was always on call and never stated no. I understand some days he was exhausted, however he always took the ball.”Feliciano left the Mets after going 3-6 with a 3.30 E.R.A. in 2010 and signed a two-year,$8 million agreement with the Yankees. However he developed shoulder issues during spring training and was closed down for the season. He had rotator cuff surgical treatment that September and missed out on the entire next major league season as well.The Yankees’ basic supervisor, Brian Cashman, blamed the Mets for Feliciano’s injury, saying that they had “mistreated”him by asking him to pitch a lot of innings. Told of his remarks, the Mets’ pitching coach, Dan Warthen, reacted,”They didn’t know that when they signed him?”Feliciano, Warthen said, “volunteered for the baseball every day “and”wanted to pitch more than we even pitched him.” After going back to the Mets in 2013, Feliciano announced in spring training that doctors had actually found a little hole in the exterior of his
heart. The diagnosis was left ventricular noncompaction, a condition triggered by the failure of myocardial development from birth. When he started pitching in exhibit games that spring, he wore a heart monitor.He finished the 2013 season, his last in the majors, with a record of 0-2 and a 3.97 E.R.A. in 25 games.Pedro Juan Feliciano Molina was born on Aug. 25, 1976, in Rio Piedras, P.R. He was picked in the 31st round of the 1995 draft by the Los Angeles Dodgers and later pitched in the minors for the Dodgers and the Cincinnati Reds. The Reds traded him to the Mets in August 2002, and he made his major league launching the next month.Feliciano left the Mets to play in Japan in 2005 but rejoined the group the next season.Information on survivors was not right away available.The Associated Press contributed reporting.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/11/sports/baseball/pedro-feliciano-dead.html