Mets: Jerry Blevins expresses desire to return to New York in 2018

Blevins not only wants to come back to the Mets in 2018, but also mentioned a personal desire for the team to re-sign Addison Reed

Veteran reliever, Jerry Blevins in a recent interview with Metsmerized’s Mathew Brownstein, expressed he would love to be back in a Mets uniform. Blevins also stated his opinion of bringing former teammate, Addison Reed back to New York for 2018.

Let’s cover the easy part of this interview first. It should be clear cut that Blevins will be back. He has a team option for $7 million next season. Alternatively, the club could buy out Blevins for $1 million, which would make him a free agent. The likelihood of that happening should rest somewhere around 0 percent.

Last season had a couple of rough pockets for Blevins, but he’s been a solid reliever over the last two years with the Mets. He has been very durable as well. After missing most of 2015, Blevins pitched in 73 games in 2016 and 75 games in ’17. He also set a new mark for strikeouts in his 11^th season in the big leagues.

In the interview, Blevins underscores how 2018 will be a prove it year for the Mets. It may be one of the most important seasons in franchise history after an injury riddled and disappointing ’17 that has already brought about several changes with more on the horizon.

The second part of this interview to tackle is Blevins’ personal desire to bring Reed back, which I’m sure many Mets fans share. Reed was shipped off to Boston for three prospects as part of a trade deadline deal and didn’t enjoy the same success in a Red Sox uniform, and was more susceptible to the long ball. Reed allowed 11 homers in 142 innings as a Met. He allowed five in only 27 innings in Boston.

Still, Reed would be back in familiar surroundings along with a revamped pen that would be very respectable with Blevins, Jeurys Familia, and AJ Ramos. What are the chances of that materializing? When you break down salaries and consider the possibility of a diminished payroll, it isn’t very likely to see a Reed reunion.

It basically depends on where Sandy Alderson will allocate the most money. We’ve already heard that two things are a priority: bullpen help and an innings eating starter. It probably wouldn’t be very wise to take a gamble on a high-risk starter considering the amount of injury questions within the rotation. So that will most likely leave the Mets shopping for more bargains in relation to relievers.

Next: Mets set to interview Alex Cora this week

Mets fans shouldn’t have anything to worry about with Blevins. He should be a part of the 2018 picture. On the other hand, re-acquiring Reed, while certainly ideal, is a much longer shot to happen.