Veteran reliever Jerry Blevins has retired from baseball, he announced Tuesday on Twitter (click here to read his statement). The left-hander had been with the Mets on a minor league contract.
Now 37 years old, Blevins entered the pros as a 17th-round pick of the Cubs in 2004. He never pitched for the Cubs, however, as they traded him to the Athletics as part of a deal for catcher Jason Kendall in 2007. Blevins debuted in the majors that year, which began a fairly long run in Oakland. He stuck with the A’s through 2013 and notched ERAs ranging from 2.48 to 3.70 in four different seasons as a member of the club.
Despite his solid production in an A’s uniform, they moved on from him heading into 2014, sending Blevins to the Nationals for outfielder Billy Burns. That proved to be the lone season in Washington for Blevins, whom the Nationals traded to the Mets for outfielder Matt den Dekker before the 2015 campaign.
Blevins missed almost all of his first season as a Met because of a fractured pitching arm, but he returned to deliver outstanding results over the next two years. In a 91-inning span from 2016-17, Blevins put up a 2.87 ERA with a 30.6 percent strikeout rate and a 9.9 percent walk rate. However, Blevins couldn’t replicate that success in 2018 – his last year with the Mets – and then reunited with the A’s on a minor league deal in the ensuing offseason. Oakland wound up trading Blevins to Atlanta before the 2019 season, which will go down as his final year in the majors. Although Blevins threw 32 1/3 frames of 3.90 ERA ball that season, he couldn’t make it back to the bigs on a minors deal with the Giants in 2020 or with the Mets this season.
In all, Blevins appeared in parts of 13 MLB seasons and posted a 3.54 ERA with 508 strikeouts in 495 1/3 innings. Blevins was especially tough on lefties, whom he held to a weak .213/.270/.313 line. MLBTR congratulates Blevins on a very solid career and wishes him the best in his post-playing days.
Good sailing Blevins…
I remember watching Blevins. I knew once the new “3-batter minimum” rule came into effect his career was basically over. Blevins was great at getting lefties out but that was pretty much his whole game. If you put a righty against him he was crushed. Blevins was the stereotypical definition of a LOOGY. Nothing wrong with that though. Great career, Jerry. You accomplished way more than most people could.
Too bad. I saw him pitch in the team’s last exhibition game. From the limited time I watched I thought he could still be valuable. The Mets’ crew said then he had announced it was the Mets or retirement. Congrats to a player who appears to have his after life in order.
first ballot easy
Unanimous.
Everytime he’d pitch at Safeco Field, I’d start chanting “Sand-wich”, because the dude looked like he hadn’t eaten in a year. SUPER skinny. But he was a very effective LOOGY for a while.
Just looked him up. You ain’t kiddin about that rail-thin physique
Right 182 skinny AF. Wonder how many writers copy each other?
Meanwhile he’s rocking a nickname of “Gordo” – Spanish for fat one.
Congrats on the retirement, Jerry! Hope to see you around Citi Field
Sad sad day at the Jessau house. One of the best middle relievers I’ve ever see
BUMMER! I was hoping he would go on a retirement tour around the league and receive gifts like Jetez and Mo did.
Best wishes to a good pitcher and a good guy.
Although he was older, the 3 batter minimum probably put the final nail in his career. The lefty specialist is a thing of the past.
Hardly, guy was about major league average against RHHs for his career and if you could get 2 out of 3 batters in an inning as Left Handed hitters, he’d still be effective.
I think it’s mostly that he didn’t pitch much at all last year and multi-inning relievers are becoming a huge part of the game today.
Darn, what will I do with my A’s Stairway to Blevins t-shirt.
Rest in peace sweet prince
Other than those God awful Jerry-Jerry jerseys he had a great career.
A couple of years ago, I saw Jerry Blevins hanging out by the dugout before a game, so I had a quick chat with him and asked him about how the upcoming rule change of three batters faced will affect LOOGY like him. His reply (and I couldn’t tell if he was completely serious as he said it with a straight face) was that he’s no LOOGY. Best of luck to him in retirement.
&, I’d like to congratulate him on parlaying a pretty strange gig (loogy) into almost $24MM.
Good work if you can get it.
Nice career, serious.
Now he gets to hang out with the kids as much as he wants, never miss Date Night again, & go hunting & fishing whenever he wants.
Which…sounds like another pretty sweeet gig, man.
Nice career.
Good luck!
23.5 million for a career LOOGY is impressive and well earned. Best of luck in retirement.
He was still rather effective in 2019, even with the 3 batter minimum rule change his career splits suggest he wasn’t a lost cause against right handed hitters.
Terrific photo for his (likely) last appearance on this website! Congrats on a great career, Jer-ry!
I remember mr Jerry, really good pitcher. GL brother man.
Blevins wasn’t so hot for the Nats in 2014, except for their brief post season. The Mets sure made out like bandits on that trade, though,.If I remember correctly—never a very certain thing—he earned Rizzo’s wrath for going to arbitration over $50,000. Anyway, a very funny guy and a good follow on Twitter. Congrats to him on his career.
I bet he does t.v. for the mets. Did pre and post mets shows last yr while sitting out
Was still effective in 2019, his and MLB’s last full season, so a bit surprised his career basically ended after that year. Lefties seemingly can play forever, but he was increasingly used as a lefty specialist, and those guys are no longer in favor with the three batter minimum.
Seems every day a veteran former lefty specialist is retiring
Best wishes to Blevins from a fellow Dayton alumni. Nice career. Go Flyers!
I bet Jerry pulled in so much chach