Luis Avilan: 2019 Mets Relief Pitcher

Luis Armando Avilan  was born July 19th 1989 in Caracas, Venezuela. The six foot two left handed pitcher, was signed by the Atlanta Braves in August of 2005 as an amateur free agent.

He spent seven years toiling in the Braves minor league system as both a starter & reliever before getting a call up. He would make his MLB debut in July of 2012 facing off against the New York Mets in relief. He was a middle to late inning reliever in 31 games for the Braves, getting credit for a win on the last day of the regular season. 

In 2013 he went 5-0 for the Braves with a 1.52 ERA, making 75 appearances (4th most in the NL). Avilan would pitch 2.2 scoreless innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers in that years NLDS. 

In 2014 he earned his first career loss, it came on April 10th to the New York Mets. Prior to that he had made 110 appearances without a loss, the fifth longest streak in MLB history.

In 2015 he was part of a three team trade with the Braves, Marlins & Dodgers that landed him in Los Angeles. He would pitch there for parts of the next three seasons as a late inning reliever, pitching a high 61 games in 2017 with a solid 2.93 ERA & having a 14 inning shut out streak.


Post Seasons: He would get to see action in three games of the 2015 NLDS, pitching three scoreless innings against the NL Champion New York Mets. He also pitched in the 2016 NLDS, as the Dodgers beat the Nationals & then two more games in the series loss to the Chicago Cubs. 

In 2018 he would pitch for The Chicago White Sox for 58 games (7th most in the AL) going 2-1 with a 3.86 ERA, earning the first two saves of his career. He then got traded to the Philadelphia Phillies (12 games). In January 2019 he signed as a free agent with the New York Mets.

New York Mets Career: Avilan made his Mets debut pitching the 7th inning of a 6-5 loss to the Washington Nats. His next two outings were a disaster, allowing three earned runs in one inning both times, ballooning his ERA to 23.14. It took him to the end of the month (seven appearances) to get that ERA below ten. On April 15th he earned his first Mets win, pitching an inning against the Philadelphia Phillies.

Avilan would miss over two months of action with injury, returning on July 5th, in a game against the Phillies. In his first half he had ERA over nine. He improved after his return in the second half of the season. He would not allow an earned run for his first 15 appearances in the second half.

On July 16th, he earned his second win, pitching scoreless parts of the 5th & 6th innings in Minnesota in a 3-2 Mets win. 
On August 9th he earned his second win during the Mets big eight game win streak. On this night Todd Frazier's three run HR tied it in the bottom of the 9th & Michael Conforto's walk off single won it. On August 21st, he won his fourth game, in the midst of the Mets sweep of the Cleveland Indians. On this night J.D. Davis walk off hot won it.

In September he had two more bad outings allowing two runs each time in Mets losses. Overall in 2019 he made 45 appearances going 4-0 with a 5.06 ERA with 30 Ks & 14 walks in 32 innings of work.

In an eight year career he is 23-10 with two saves, a 3.28 ERA with 306 Ks 132 walks in 340 innings in 444 appearances.

Personal: Avilan enjoys going to the beach & spending time with his family.