MLB

Pitching prospect making progress for Amazin’ future

PORT ST. LUCIE — Jeurys Familia will take a bunch of spring outings that resemble his performance yesterday in the Mets’ intrasquad scrimmage.

“I don’t want to change anything from today, but I want to take a little more control of my changeup,” Familia said after pitching two shutout innings at Digital Domain Park.

Most talk of the Mets’ pitching future starts with higher-rated prospects Zack Wheeler and Matt Harvey, but Familia certainly can’t be overlooked.

The 22-year-old right-hander showed marked improvement last year from 2010, jumping from Single-A St. Lucie to Double-A Binghamton, and may have the inside track on getting the call to the majors among the Mets’ pitching prospects, based on his health and experience.

The organization’s other highly regarded pitching prospect, Jenrry Mejia, is recovering from Tommy John surgery and likely won’t resume pitching in the minors until May.

But the Mets also appear in no rush on their young pitchers, and manager Terry Collins said he would like to see the organization let Familia and Co. mature at Triple-A rather than get rushed.

“If the case may be this year that it looks like Harvey is going to make it, if it looks like Familia is getting close, I would like to get them to the next level,” Collins said. “Get them to Triple-A, where they are going to see some better hitters, guys who have much more plate discipline and challenge them a little bit.

“See how they handle it, because they’re going to have a bad night,” he added. “It’s not a good feeling to get a kid to the big leagues who has never failed, and how’s he going to deal with failure? Some of them don’t deal with it very well.”

Familia did not allow a hit and struck out two with one walk yesterday in his two innings against a largely Triple-A lineup that included Ronny Cedeno and Justin Turner from the major league roster.

Wally Backman, who managed Familia last season at Double-A, said he is excited about the idea of having the right-hander this year at Triple-A Buffalo.

“I love him,” Backman said. “He’s a power pitcher that has now developed three quality pitches. His changeup was a work in progress last year, and it will be a work in progress this year. But he’s a power guy that sits at 94-95 [mph] and when he gets in trouble he’s got 97-98.”

Backman called Familia “very determined” and said he and Harvey compete against each other.

“They feed off each other, and that’s what I really liked about them when I had them both in Double-A — you could really see that,” Backman said. “It would be nice to see those kids stay together, but even when they do get to the big leagues and do the same thing, they are going to push each other.

“That’s something that comes from inside that you just can’t teach. If they both stay healthy, they are going to be special. You’ve got Familia, you’ve got Harvey and Wheeler is not far behind them.”

Familia said he’s enjoying the journey.

“I feel excited to be one of the group, with Harvey and Mejia and [Wheeler], because I work every day because I want to be in the big leagues,” Familia said. “Same with the other guys, too. If you practice hard and pitch well, everybody is going to be in there.”