Pedro Feliciano: The gift that keeps on giving and giving

When the Mets traded Shawn Estes to the Cincinnati Reds for Pedro Feliciano, Elvin Andujar and two Players to be Named Later (Raul Gonzalez and Brady Clark) during the August of 2002, you’d have to have been crazy to think that that deal would impact Mets history (and their future) in the way that it has.

Andujar never advanced past A ball and was out of baseball by 2004.

Clark played 10 games with the Mets, and after being claimed off waivers by the Milwaukee Brewers would go on to actually be pretty decent, with his career year coming in 2005, when he posted a .306/.372/.426/.798 line playing centerfield for the brew crew.  His 13 home runs that season is nearly twice as good as his next best season, so there’s that, not that I’m implying he had artificial help.

Clark would also play 7 games in April for the 2008 Mets, finishing out his career in orange and blue.

Gonzalez was a right handed hitting outfielder with a little bit of pop, but his hit tool was never going to be enough to allow him to play regularly at the major league level.  He played 137 unremarkable and forgettable games with the Mets down the stretch in 2002 and 2003, combining for a .233/.301/.330/.632 line before being released after the 2003 season.

Feliciano, on the other hand, was a LOOGY-type reliever who threw in the upper-80’s to low-90’s, but didn’t project to be more than just another middle reliever.

For a while that’s what it looked like he was; he was on the Heath Bell Express between Flushing and Norfolk from 2002-2004, never posting spectacular numbers, and spent the 2005 season pitching for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of the Japanese Pacific League.

It was in that magical 2006 campaign that Feliciano had his breakout year.

Appearing in 64 games, the man who would become endearingly nicknamed Perpetual Pedro posted a 7-2 record and a 2.09 ERA.  His peripherals were good that year too, posting an 8.06 K/9, 2.98 BB/9, a career-best 76 FIP-, and 0.8 fWAR.

He did all of that while facing about an equal split of lefties and righties, facing a 127 lefties and 129 righties, and being effective against both.  Predictably, lefties hit Feliciano to the tune of a .261 wOBA, but righties fared poorly as well, only managing a .315 wOBA.

Perhaps the biggest reason for Feliciano’s development was the development of his slider.  After being a below average pitch for the majority of his career, his slider all of a sudden became his best pitch, being worth 5.0 runs.

Feliciano’s slider helped keep lefties off balance and gave him a pitch to get righties out with, but more importantly, it gave him a chance not only to make it in the major leagues, but to thrive there.

Over the next four seasons, Feliciano would lead the team in appearances, setting Mets club records in consecutive years from 2008-2010 with 86, 88, and 92, respectively.

In fact, Feliciano would become one of the best relievers on the team, having the most wins (22), innings (372.2), fifth in WAR (2.4), and seventh best FIP (3.75) of all Mets relievers since the new millennium.

After the 2010 season, Feliciano was scheduled to become a free agent for the first time.  New GM Sandy Alderson made the decision to allow him to walk and sign with the crosstown-rival New York Yankees for two years and $8 million.

Alderson, instead, used the money saved by not resigning Feliciano to bring in Tim Byrdak for $900,000 and extend a certain knuckleball throwing pitcher named R.A. Dickey for two years and $8 million with an option for a third season.

It was also a shrewd maneuver because Feliciano was a Type B free agent, meaning the Mets were not only getting more value for their money, but would get a compensation round draft pick as well.

In spring training, with his shiny new contract in hand, Feliciano started feeling discomfort in his shoulder.  In April, he was placed on a six week strengthening program by famed orthopedist James Andrews.

Later it was discovered that he had both a torn capsule and torn rotator cuff requiring arthroscopic surgery, shutting him down for the entire season.  Feliciano would undergo another surgery in during the 2011 offseason and missed most of the 2012 season as well, doing a rehab assignment in August and September with the Trenton Thunder.

What little velocity he had was gone, and his control was sporadic; after collecting $8 million of Hank and Hal Steinbrenner’s money without ever throwing a pitch for them, it looked as if he may never throw a pitch in the major leagues again.

So when it was announced on January 21^st that the Mets had resigned Feliciano to a low-risk minor league contract, it seemed like nothing more than the Mets being nice and allowing Feliciano to pitch in their minor league system for a while and to mentor some of the younger guys in camp.

To say that he would’ve been called up to pitch at the major league level at any point would’ve gotten you laughed at.

Now it’s early August, Feliciano has been active for two games, and has pitched in both of them, retiring all four batters he’s faced.

Feliciano’s return to the majors after nearly three years is a great story that is just another thing that makes the rest of this 2013 campaign worth watching.

As for that compensation round draft pick?  It turned out to be high schooler Michael Fulmer, a hard-throwing righty starter from Oklahoma.  Fulmer was impressive last year in his first full season posting a 7-6 record and 2.74 ERA in Single-A Savannah.  He also sported a 3.27 FIP and a 101:83 K:BB ratio in 108.1 innings pitched.

This year, after being sidelined with a torn meniscus for three months, the 20-year-old Fulmer is gradually making his way back posting a combined 2-3 with a 3.93 ERA and a 31:13 K:BB ration between the Florida State League and his rehab in the Gulf Coast League.

Assuming Fulmer can make a full recovery, he projects to slot in nicely in the starting rotation sometime in late 2015/early 2016, joining Matt Harvey, Zack Wheeler, and Noah Syndergaard to form a quartet of hard-throwing righties.

There’s also the potential for Fulmer to become the centerpiece for a package to acquire an impact bat at the deadline either of the next two seasons.

Not a bad return for half a season of Shawn Estes.

Joe Vasile is a play by play announcer and radio host.  Follow him on twitter at @JoeVasilePBP and visit his website.