The Mets trade that brought fan favorite Jerry Blevins to New York

Believe it or not, Jerry Blevins wasn’t always a member of the New York Mets. In fact, most of his career was spent with the Oakland Athletics. He joined the Washington Nationals for a year in 2014. On March 30, 2015, the Mets and Nationals made a rare trade with each other involving this lefty reliever.

Blevins had an unspectacular 2014 season with the Nationals. He finished with a 4.87 ERA in 57.1 innings of work. The Mets, seeing something, decided it was worth trading outfielder Matt den Dekker.

History would show it was the right call.

The 2015 Mets trade for Jerry Blevins was a low-key deal that worked

Before the death of the lefty specialist, Blevins had a very distinctive role in the major leagues. This was precisely how Mets manager Terry Collins would use him in 2016 when he recovered from an injury that took him out of all but 5 innings in 2015.

Collins and company knew exactly how to utilize Blevins in the best way possible. He’d appear in 73 games for the 2016 team, logging only 42 innings. He had a 2.79 ERA to show for it.

The following year, on a much more disappointing Mets team, Blevins was one of the few to play well. He went 6-0 with a 2.94 ERA. Yet again, his games played trumped his innings. The southpaw reliever would make 75 appearances and only pitch 49 innings throughout the year.

Over in Washington, den Dekker didn’t have nearly as much sustained success. He had 110 plate appearances in 2015, batting .253/.315/.485. The following year, he hit only .176 in his 39 trips to the plate at the major league level. Things weren’t much better in the minors where he batted only .207.

Both players would eventually reunite in 2018 with Blevins having his worst Mets season and den Dekker going hitless in his 21 plate appearances.

Blevins wasn’t quite Pedro Feliciano but he was a nice role player on a team with a manager who had a plan for him. He’s one of those Mets players who performed well on the field yet remains in the spotlight due to his personality off of it. He’s involved with SNY these days, a career path that all began with a trade on March 30.