With the arrivals of right-hander Trevor May and lefty Aaron Loup, the New York Mets have one of the deepest bullpens in the National League, even if they won’t have stellar setup man Seth Lugo available for the start of the season.
Edwin Diaz is supposed the be the closer, and he is one of the best relievers in baseball. May is a fantastic addition, and Loup is a very good lefty to help retire batters of his hand. Dellin Betances and Jeurys Familia, as well as Robert Gsellman, are bounceback candidates, and there are lots of hopes put in Sam McWilliams, who the Mets gave a major league deal without ever pitching in the bigs.
For a guy like Jerry Blevins, who is 37 years old and didn’t pitch in MLB last year, making the roster will be a tough task. But the Mets don’t have too many left-handed relievers, and as long as that’s the case, he has hope.
He last pitched in the majors with the Atlanta Braves in 2019, and had a 3.90 ERA in 32.1 frames. He latched on with the San Francisco Giants but was let go in the early stages of the pandemic. He spent those months “chasing around two kids in diapers.â€
The Mets came calling
But the Mets called, and he took the opportunity.
“I still have that want,†Blevins said to MLB.com. “I want to win a World Series. Literally the only team I would have come back for is the Mets. My body still feels great. I still have analytics that say my stuff is still the same, so I’m still there, I still have that drive. And then the perfect storm of having a chance to come to New York, where my family loved it, where my first son was born, and they’re a World Series competitor. So it’s going to be tough to make this team, but I still feel like I have an opportunity to do that.â€
Trevor Hildenberger, Arodys VizcaÃno, Drew Smith, McWilliams and others are his main competitors for a spot with the New York Mets.
“Right now, my goal is to win a spot on this roster,†Blevins said. “When the time comes, we’ll deal with that as it is. There are a lot of variables that will shake themselves out.â€
Blevins has a 3.54 career ERA. Lefties have batted .213 against him, so he has things working for him.