The Yankees’ general manager, Brian Cashman, blamed the Mets for Feliciano’s injury, saying that they had “abused” him by asking him to pitch too many innings. He had rotator cuff surgery that September and missed the entire next major league season as well. But he developed shoulder problems during spring training and was shut down for the season. in 2010 and signed a two-year, $8 million contract with the Yankees. I know some days he was tired, but he always took the ball.”įeliciano left the Mets after going 3-6 with a 3.30 E.R.A. “He was always on call and never said no. “I never had to look down to the bullpen to see if Pedro was ready,” Willie Randolph, who managed the Mets from 2005 to 2008, said in a statement.
His best season was 2006, when the Mets finished first in the National League East: He posted a 7-2 record and a 2.09 earned run average in 64 games. From 2006 to 2010, he appeared in 408 games and had a 3.09 E.R.A. “When you talk about relievers in baseball, in my mind, he’s at the top because he can get out both lefties and righties,” the Mets’ general manager, Omar Minaya, said in 2007.įeliciano led the majors in games pitched with 86 in 2008, 88 in 2009 and 92 in 2010 - a single-season total that had previously been exceeded only three times in major league history. 211 average, but he was not just a left-handed specialist. He pitched a total of 484 games, the second most in Mets history after the 695 appearances by the All-Star reliever John Franco.įeliciano was used primarily against left-handed hitters and held them to a. He won 22 games, lost 21 and had a 3.33 earned run average in a career that stretched from 2002 to 2013. No cause was given, but Feliciano had learned in 2013 that he had a rare genetic heart condition.įeliciano, a left-hander, joined the Mets after seven years in the minor leagues and went on to spend his entire nine-year major league career with them.
Pedro Feliciano, a relief pitcher who was the workhorse of the Mets’ bullpen for five years - including three straight seasons in which he led the major leagues in appearances, earning him the nickname Perpetual Pedro - died on Monday at his home in Puerto Rico.