PORT ST. LUCIE — Jerry Blevins achieved his goal of returning to the Mets for this season, but it took longer than he would have anticipated.
The veteran reliever recently signed a one-year deal with the team worth $6.5 million — there is a club option for 2018 — but would have been happier if a market that brought sweeter deals to fellow lefties Brett Cecil and Mike Dunn had a spot for him.
Cecil received a four-year deal worth $30.5 million from the Cardinals. And Dunn signed a three-year contract worth $19 million with the Rockies.
“Those guys are obviously comparables,” Blevins said Sunday upon reporting to spring training. “[Dunn] and Brett Cecil set the market early, it’s something that pushed things forward. Even the deal I have, I’m extremely happy with — I think it’s fair for both sides — and I’m where I want to be, so it worked out. I hope the Mets feel the same way.”
Blevins made 73 appearances for the Mets last season and went 4-2 with a 2.79 ERA. He will be counted upon as the primary lefty option in a bullpen that features Jeurys Familia and Addison Reed. The Mets also re-signed veteran Fernando Salas to a one-year contract worth $3 million.
“A bunch of familiar faces is how I see the Mets pen,” Blevins said. “The free-agent signings are guys who were there and guys who have been around, so it’s always good to have people that have been there before and kind of understand the situation. Pitching in New York is not easy — especially in the bullpen.”
Josh Smoker, Josh Edgin and veteran Tom Gorzelanny are the primary options to compete for the second lefty’s role in the bullpen.
But the Mets want Blevins on the mound with Bryce Harper or Freddie Freeman at the plate in the seventh or eighth inning of a tight game.
“I think there is a need for the job that I do here, that showed out in the year we went to the World Series and I was hurt,” Blevins said. “I think that I filled a good role last year and the team still wanted my presence. I definitely wanted to be here and it’s an easy thing when you have a little bit of a history with a team and the team has a little success.”