The Mets have signed veteran left-handed reliever Jerry Blevins to a minor league contract, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today. Blevins will earn a $1.25MM salary if he makes it to the majors, according to Nightengale, who adds that the deal comes with $750K in incentives.
The 37-year-old Blevins has enjoyed some of the finest seasons of his career as a member of the Mets, with whom he previously pitched from 2015-18. Blevins combined for 138 2/3 innings of 3.38 ERA/3.61 FIP ball with 10.77 K/9 and 3.96 BB/9 then, though he struggled in his last season with the Mets and didn’t return to his best form with the Braves in 2019. Blevins didn’t pitch in the majors last season after signing a minors pact with the Giants, who released him in early April.
MLB’s three-batter-minimum rule doesn’t do lefty relievers like Blevins any favors. However, considering how righty-heavy the Mets’ bullpen is, returning to the organization could give Blevins a legitimate shot to get back to the bigs in 2021. Daniel Zamora is the lone southpaw reliever on the Mets’ 40-man roster.
Yay I always liked Jerry
Interesting signing on a minors deal. Solid depth option.
Blevins is terrible. I watched him with the Braves and he could only pitch to lefties and still sucked. That was before they implemented the 3 batter rule. Blevins is a bad version of a LOOGY in a league that doesn’t even have room for good LOOGY’s anymore. I think the Braves acquired Blevins from the A’s and the Braves literally only traded $1 for him. Blevins was in the minors at the time and the contract wasn’t guaranteed. That means The A’s could have kept Blevins and paid him nothing but they literally valued $1 more than him.
If the contract wasn’t guaranteed, they could have released him for free. More like they fleeced the Braves for $1.
Touche’!
Blevins is worth a look. Does anybody know why he didn’t play in 2020?
@ Fred McGriff above
My one and only cool baseball story. I met Jerry Blevins stepfather in Detroit in 2013 – we were both there for the ALDS. His stepfather was just a proper decent dyed in the wool hardworking blue collar bloke. Happy to chat and shoot the breeze over a cigarette. I was gutted for him that Jerry didn’t actually pitch in either game. Obviously I’ve followed his career closely ever since. His RBI single and 250 batting average is rudely overlooked too!
During Grant Balfour’s amazing run of saves/holds 2012-3 it is forgotten that Jerry Blevins dug him out of a hole a couple of times.
What struck me most about his step-dad was not his pride in his kid being a major leaguer but his pride that he was the team rep, & was continuing his degree.
2020 wise he signed with the Giants but was released a few weeks later. I’m more than pleased he has another shot at a reliever gig next year.
Can’t believe I’m going to say it but I’m in favor of a salary cap for baseball. Maybe it would make free agency exciting again.
Patience is being prestiged in FA. As someone who likes early signings as well, I am fine with FA as it leads to a chess match between owners and players.
It wouldn’t
A salary cap would suppress spending even more
I think he meant a per player salary cap, not a team spending limit. They need to cap individual players salaries.
Many free agents hold out because they see those $200m-$300m contracts or aav over $40m and they want it too.
I don’t have the answers, I’m not a math guy but imo a max of $20m-$25m aav seems reasonable.
What? That would only serve to suppress salaries, too.
a max of infinity seems reaonable. why have a cap on what a player can earn? if a team wants to pay $30,40,100 million they have every right to.
No joke. Imagine making rules to ensure billionaires don’t spend too much money on the people who generate the revenue.
Hey PitcherMeRolling. I think you are right and i am against just a straight up cap. But what if there was a basement too? So the Dodgers can only spend $250 million but the Rays, Marlins, Pirates and Royals all HAD to spend at least $140 million. That wouldn’t suppress salaries. That would increase them. There would be more money being spent total like the NFL does. That means players mathematically have to get paid more overall. Maybe the top guys don’t always make as much but they are still filthy rich and the mid tier guys all get paid WAY more. Do you like that idea? I think the idea of a cap without a basement or a basement without a cap is a nonstarter but both at the same time could really work together.
A Salary Floor would probably be a good idea. If you can’t run $140 (or whatever) payroll, you can’t afford own a team.
Now, the owners definitely will not agree with us. Unless it comes with a cap, too.
A salary floor would probably accomplish that more than a cap would. The Indians’ payroll, once they trade Lindor, will be pretty close to $40 million.
You can’t have a floor without a cap or a cap without a floor. They go hand in hand. The idea of implementing one is always terrible but the idea of implementing both is actually really good. Yes. The Indians need to be forced to spend more cash but all a floor would do is insure that happens with almost no results. All a cap alone would do is insure players don’t make what some people are willing to pay them. The whole point of a cap and a floor is to insure parity. Speeding up the offseason is a stupid reason to do it. MLB has the most interesting offseason because it takes so long. No reason to ruin the sport by only doing one or the other because NFL/NBA fans are impatient and used to 4 day free agency periods.
Cleveland should change their mascot to the Indentured Servants. It’s more accurate and probably less offensive.
Joe it needs a minimum cap just as bad!
“Minimum cap” is either an oxymoron or a very small hat.
Why do you want free agency to be exciting? Hard salary caps may make the offseason exciting for a couple of days but the rest is BS about new uniforms, solely for the purpose of selling fans garbage in stores and day upon day of nothing. Salary caps have turned the other big three team sports into fantasy leagues, where you fill your team each year and see how you do. No thanks. Baseball is fine without it. In fact, I’d get rid of the luxury tax so that we don’t have all this nonsense of having to manipulate under the limit for one year along with all these fake options that serve only to manipulate the average annual value of contracts for luxury tax purposes. I know this will never happen, but let all teams share half their real broadcast revenue, nit the fake number they disclose now, with the rest of the league and then have at it to build the best teams.
3rd Time Sandy Has Brought Jerry in as a NY MET
Welcome back Jerry Jerry
Baseball sufferers from free agency moving at a glacial pace compared to the other sports. Player movement drums up excitement and anticipation for the coming season while constant rumors with little to no action doesn’t grab attention. I get that the waiting game is part of the norm but in the not so distant past November and December were big months for free agent signings and trades, now its mid-January and even in to February. This is why Baseball is now lagging behind the NFL and NBA, sports are year round and Baseball has a lot more down time than it should
Player salary caps and signing deadlines would fix some of these problems.
A financial system that isn’t totally slanted and league and union leaders pulling their heads out of their hindquarters and acting like grown adults from time to time would help
Union would be crazy to ever accept this and they never should. Signing deadline gives all leverage to the owners as teams can sit a wait and make offers on deadline day knowing the players have no choice but accept.
Also cannot have a player cap without a minimum spending limit from the owners.
NBA/NHL free agency is done in 3 days. Rather have the signings spread out over months than done in less than a week.
We have the fun of seeing which player settled for too little which waited too long, which team overpaid, and which couldn’t fill all their holes. Except for teams deliberately tanking or not having the revenue to field a competitive team, things are fine. Of course, those are two major exceptions. The next CBA negotiation is going to be a mess unless revenue bounces back so strongly that the owners will do anything to avoid an impasse.
has anyone actually proven this to be the case or is it just correlation equaling causation? like are most prospective baseball fans who chose other sports instead actually saying that?
I liked Jerry as a Met, but I fail to see how his value for the same contract, I believe, at the major’s level is as much as what Chasen Shreve would have given him if they tendered him. I understand, though, that Shreve was out of options, so that could explain it.
So the Dodgers sign Nelson, Morrow & Pazos to minor league deals and trade a low level prospect for Knebel, and the Mets answer that by signing a 37 year old lefty specialist in Blevins? Hahaha! Sounds like the Mets really need to sign a GM ASAP. The talent gap continues to get larger and larger.
Don’t you have a guy named Archer to look after while he insults you?
Both him & Malory both!
@mantooth That kind of sassmouth is why I took you out for a nice seafood dinner and NEVER called you again!
Now how about some Real Deals Mets. Like Springer,McCann and Bauer. Come on stop dragging your asses.
Still would not mind seeing Shreve get another shot on a minor league deal
Mets blue light special – washed up soft throwing left handed pitchers 36 or older. Calling all Jon Lesters and Cole Hamels….
If they can get either/both of them to sign a minor league deal, they absolutely should.
Wow those Mets are really doing some big spending. Great job new owner
Do you think big spending equates to not making any minor moves?
Why would JERRY bring anything? Why would Jerry BRING anything?
Blevins is certainly worth a look. somebody tell Sandy that if he’s still feeling nostalgic Tyler Clippard is available.
Give us Bartolo or give us death!
Can Joe Smith and Darren O Day reunions be far behind???
Glad to see Blevins get another shot and hope it works out for him. I have liked him since he was with the Nats in 2014. He didn’t play well during the regular season but did during the playoffs. He’s also a good person to follow on Twitter.
The Mets made out like bandits in the trade for him from the Nats, not one of Rizzo’s better moves.