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Pedro Feliciano, a reduction pitcher who was the workhorse of the Mets’ bullpen for five years — which include a few straight seasons in which he led the key leagues in appearances, earning him the nickname Perpetual Pedro — died on Monday at his dwelling in Puerto Rico. He was 45.
The Mets announced his demise. No bring about was specified, but Feliciano experienced discovered in 2013 that he had a rare genetic heart issue.
Feliciano, a still left-hander, joined the Mets just after seven several years in the insignificant leagues and went on to expend his total 9-12 months big league profession with them. He won 22 online games, misplaced 21 and experienced a 3.33 attained operate typical in a occupation that stretched from 2002 to 2013. He pitched a overall of 484 online games, the 2nd most in Mets background just after the 695 appearances by the All-Star reliever John Franco.
Feliciano was made use of generally in opposition to left-handed hitters and held them to a .211 ordinary, but he was not just a left-handed professional. “When you speak about relievers in baseball, in my thoughts, he’s at the top since he can get out both lefties and righties,” the Mets’ common manager, Omar Minaya, explained in 2007.
Feliciano led the majors in video games pitched with 86 in 2008, 88 in 2009 and 92 in 2010 — a one-time whole that experienced formerly been exceeded only a few times in major league historical past. From 2006 to 2010, he appeared in 408 video games and had a 3.09 E.R.A.
His ideal season was 2006, when the Mets concluded first in the Countrywide League East: He posted a 7-2 file and a 2.09 gained operate regular in 64 video games.
“I hardly ever experienced to appear down to the bullpen to see if Pedro was ready,” Willie Randolph, who managed the Mets from 2005 to 2008, claimed in a statement. “He was always on get in touch with and never ever explained no. I know some times he was exhausted, but he normally took the ball.”
Feliciano remaining the Mets soon after going 3-6 with a 3.30 E.R.A. in 2010 and signed a two-12 months, $8 million agreement with the Yankees. But he made shoulder troubles through spring education and was shut down for the period. He had rotator cuff surgical procedures that September and skipped the full following important league period as well.
The Yankees’ general supervisor, Brian Cashman, blamed the Mets for Feliciano’s injury, saying that they had “abused” him by inquiring him to pitch much too quite a few innings. Told of his feedback, the Mets’ pitching coach, Dan Warthen, responded, “They did not know that when they signed him?”
Feliciano, Warthen said, “volunteered for the baseball just about every day” and “wanted to pitch additional than we even pitched him.”
Just after returning to the Mets in 2013, Feliciano introduced in spring coaching that doctors experienced found a tiny gap in the exterior of his heart. The prognosis was still left ventricular noncompaction, a problem brought on by the failure of myocardial development from beginning. When he began pitching in exhibition online games that spring, he wore a heart check.
He concluded the 2013 period, his previous in the majors, with a report of -2 and a 3.97 E.R.A. in 25 game titles.
Pedro Juan Feliciano Molina was born on Aug. 25, 1976, in Rio Piedras, P.R. He was picked in the 31st spherical of the 1995 draft by the Los Angeles Dodgers and afterwards pitched in the insignificant leagues for the Dodgers and the Cincinnati Reds. The Reds traded him to the Mets in August 2002, and he designed his significant league debut the up coming month.
Feliciano remaining the Mets to play in Japan in 2005 but rejoined the staff the subsequent time.
Details on survivors was not quickly offered.
The Involved Push contributed reporting.
