Jerry Blevins: Former Mets Reliever (2015-2018)

Jerry Richard Blevins was born September 6th 1983 in Johnson City Tennessee. The tall six foot six left handed reliever attended the University of Dayton, pitching for their baseball team going 7-4 in 21 games for two seasons. Blevins was signed by the Chicago Cubs in 2004 in the 17th round.

After spending four seasons in the Cubs system he was traded along with catcher Rob Bowen to the Oakland Athletics for Jason Kendall in 2007. 

He made the 2007 A's bullpen as a September call up that year, debuting on September 16th against the Texas Rangers pitching a perfect 9th inning. 

The following year he was designated for assignment in May but then resigned. Overall Blevins would spend seven seasons with the Oakland A's as a middle to late inning reliever.


His best seasons came in 2012 when he was 5-1 with a 2.48 ERA in 63 appearances, finishing up 17 games & 2013 when he was 5-0 with a 3.15 ERA in 67 appearances, finishing up 14 games. That year his first win came in a 19 inning game against the L.A. Angels. 

In those two years he was 10-1 with 18 holds, 106 strike outs & just 43 walks in 125 innings.

2012 Post Season: In the 2012 ALDS against the Detroit Tigers, he made three relief appearances, with no decisions finishing up the Game #1 loss. In Game #4 he pitched a scoreless 6th & the inning in the A's 4-3 victory.

At the end of Spring Training 2014 he was traded to the Washington Nationals for former Met, Matt den Dekker. That year he helped the NL Eastern Champion Nats pitching in 64 appearances going 2-3 with nine holds & a 4.87 ERA. He struck out 66 batters in 57 innings.


2014 Post Season: He made three NLDS appearances against the San Francisco Giants, striking out two & allowing no runs in 3.1 innings.

In March of 2015 he was traded to the New York Mets for Matt den Dekker.

Mets Career: Blevins debuted on Opening Day with the Mets, getting former Nat team mate Bryce Harper to line out in the 9th inning. The Mets went on to a 3-1 victory in D.C. 

Blevins was quickly becoming Terry Collins left handed late inning reliever as he notched himself five holds in seven games not allowing an earned run. Left hand batters were 0-14 against him out of the Mets bullpen.

On April 16th he earned his only win, beating the Miami Marlins. He had given up a fielders choice that allowed an inherited run to score, but benefited from RBIs by Lucas Duda & Michael Cuddyer.


On April 9th he was hit by a comebacker & suffered a fracture of his left arm. He went on the DL & later slipped on a curb in Florida refracturing his arm again. He was out for the rest of the season as the Mets went on to the World Series.

Quotes: Jerry Blevins- “I was on the phone with my now-wife and slipped and caught myself. It wasn’t anything crazy. It just happened.  I caught myself, and I just felt a little bit of pain. I went back into the training room and it felt sore. And we iced it and it didn’t go away. So we went and checked it out -- X-ray style. It came back and there was a little crack. So we decided to go with the surgery.”


In December 2015 the Mets resigned him to a one year $4 million deal. Blevins returned to Mets Spring Training with high hopes in 2016.


Quotes: Jerry Blevins- "There’s always curiosity. Something is new. I’ve got metal latched to bone in my arm. So there was definitely a bit of apprehension. But there’s only one way to find out how it’s going to be. And that’s to start throwing. Knock on wood, it’s been great so far. I haven’t had any issues. It feels really good now.”

Blevins became a valuable asset to the Mets bullpen in 2016, seeing action mostly in the late innings as the left handed specialist. On April 13th he earned his first win a 2-1 Mets victory over the Miami Marlins. The rest of the month he recorded four holds to his credit.

By late June his ERA was a personal season low at 1.45, that month he earned his second win another 2-1 Mets win, this time at Milwaukee.

On July 4th, Yoenis Cespedes broke a 6-6 tie against the Miami Marlins in what turned out to be the winning runs. Blevins got the win & went to 3-0. He suffered two losses & a blown save as he closed out August.

In September he recorded his first two saves of the year, one coming on September 13th in an extra inning (10 inning) 4-3 win over the Nationals in Washington D.C. Later that week on the 18th, he recorded save #2 in a 3-2 win at home over the Minnesota Twins. 


Blevins added two more holds to earn 16 holds on the season. Overall he was 4-2 with two saves, posting a 2.79 ERA, striking out 52 in 42 innings pitched while walking 15. He was third on the staff with 73 appearances.


In what became the disaster season of 2017, Blevins was probably the best pitcher to come out of the Mets Bullpen. It began in the third game of the Mets season where he earned his first hold. 

On April 10th he earned his first victory, pitching 2/3 of an inning in a 4-3 win at Philadelphia. A week later he would have trouble with the Phillies in New York blowing two save in a row, one ending in a Mets loss. 


On May 5th he pitched a scoreless 7th inning against the Miami Marlins, earning him his second win. That month he would earn up to seven holds keeping his ERA under two at 1.72.  

He entered June with another blown save, this time in a 5-4 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers. On June 7th, he gave up a two run HR to the Rangers Robinson Chirinos, tying the game. But he ended up with a win after the Mets scored in the top of the 9th.

On June 14th he pitched 1.1. scoreless innings against the Chicago Cubs to get to win #4 on the year against no losses. By mid June, his ERA remained over two steadily for the first time. 

In July he earned his first save on July 21st against the Oakland Athletics at Citi Field. A week later he got his fifth win in relief coming in Seattle.

August brought two more blown saves & seeing his ERA get over three for the first time. But by August 30th he had 15 holds & earned his sixth win on August 27th against the Washington Nats. 

At this point he was 6-0 with a 2.66 ERA striking out 57 batters in 40.2 innings of work while walking 19 in a team leading 62 appearances.

The Mets picked up the option on his contract & he was penciled in as a key part of the 2018 Met bullpen. The year turned out to be a disaster and at the All Star break he was 1-1 with a 5.01 ERA in 38 appearances. 

Trivia: In June he made his first career start, he became the second pitcher since 1900 to allow two HRs to the first two batters he faced in a first start.

On August 6th, he earned his first save of the year, pitching the 9th inning & finishing off a 6-4 win over the Reds at Citi Field. On August 16th, he got his first career RBI, driving in Jose Reyes with a base hit, as the Mets scored five runs with four straight batters. It all happened in the Mets amazing, 24-4 win at Philadelphia.

After taking a loss at Wrigley Field where he allowed two 7th inning runs, Blevins evened his record to 2-2 on September 1st, as he pitched a scoreless 10th inning in a 2-1 Mets win at San Francisco. 

On September 13th he finished a game against the Marlins, earning a win when Michael Conforto & Todd Frazier hit back to back HRs in the bottom of the 9th to win it.



For 2018 he was 3-2 with a save, 41 Ks & 22 walks in 42 innings of work posting a 4.85 ERA. He was second on the club with 64 appearances.

The Mets let him go to free agency, he was signed by the Oakland A's but then had his contract purchased by the Atlanta Braves on April 28th 2019.

For Atlanta, he made 45 appearances going 1-0 with ten holds & 12 games finished, posting a 3.90 ERA. He struck out 37 walked 16 in 32 innings of work.


After the season he signed with the San Francisco Giants but was released in Spring Training.

In a 13 year career he is 30-13 with seven saves, 508 strike outs 195 walks, he gave up 50, pitching in 495 innings in 609 appearances.

Family: Jerry proposed to his wife Whitney, at the National Mall in Washington D.C. They had their first child, in March of 2018.