PALM BEACH, Fla. _ Jeurys Familia is very likely to be suspended by Major League Baseball for his domestic-abuse arrest, but it appears both he and the Mets will have a few more weeks to wait for the commissioner's verdict on the case.
Familia's wife, Bianca Rivas, had her request granted for the charges to be dropped last December, nearly two months after his Halloween arrest at their home in Fort Lee, N.J. But under MLB's policy, a player still can face discipline from the commissioner, and Rob Manfred said Friday that he intends to have a resolution at some point during spring training.
"With the Familia investigation, I'm not going to say anything more than it's ongoing," Manfred said at the conclusion of MLB's owners meetings. "I expect that we will have a decision certainly before Opening Day, but at a point in time that both the player and the club know what's going on well in advance of Opening Day. I can't be more concrete than that."
A source familiar with the investigation said Familia has cooperated with MLB's probe into the matter. During the offseason, it is not unusual for these decisions to be held up until spring training, as the penalty typically begins on Opening Day.
Last year, the Yankees' Aroldis Chapman received a 30-game suspension, despite no arrest, mostly because of the fact he repeatedly fired a gun into a garage wall during a domestic dispute. The Mets' Jose Reyes, then with the Rockies, was dealt a 52-game ban after his Halloween arrest for domestic abuse in Hawaii, but the case was dropped when his wife refused to cooperate with prosecutors.
Based on these two precedents, Familia's punishment may fall somewhere in between. While Chapman's situation was exacerbated by the gun use, he was not arrested, as both Reyes and Familia were.
The Mets have operated under the assumption that Familia will be suspended, possibly for the first month if not longer, and added two more relief pitchers Friday with set-up man Addison Reed penciled in to take over the closer's role.
Manfred also addressed a number of league-wide issues Friday, among them updated pace-of-play studies, concern over immigration in the wake of President Donald Trump's new executive order and concern over competition in the All-Star Game.
As far as speeding up the game, Manfred said the recent collective bargaining agreement has provided some leeway in possibly inserting new rules to quicken the pace, but the commissioner did not provide specifics. He just expressed the need for it to be a group effort.
"I don't think there's a magic bullet that's going to come one year and that's going to be the solution to pace of play," Manfred said. "I think it's going to be an ongoing effort to make sure that our game moves along in the way that is most attractive to our fans."
The commissioner also expressed the need to be vigilant regarding how changes in immigration laws might disrupt the travel situations of MLB players and staff.
"Obviously our foremost concern is that players that are under contract with our organizations be able to come and go," Manfred said. "As of right now, the countries that have been mostly affected are not places where we have players. But we are monitoring the situation."
