Left-hander Jerry Blevins has retired from baseball.
Blevins, who was at the Mets' Alternate Site after not making the team out of spring training, posted an open letter on his Twitter page Tuesday night, which was titled "Hello Retirement, Goodbye Baseball," and started with that simple phrase: "I am retired from baseball."
"I've been all over the place emotionally since I made the decision a few nights ago," Blevins wrote in the letter, which thanked his family, all of his teams, his agent, the MLBPA, and most importantly, the fans from Oakland to New York:
Blevins, 37, posted a career 3.54 ERA in 495 1/3 innings over 609 career games. Originally a 17th-round pick of the Cubs in 2004, the lefty made his MLB debut with Oakland in 2007 – he was part of the deal that saw the A's ship Jason Kendall to Chicago that season – and he also played for the Nationals and Mets before his final MLB season with the Braves in 2019.
The southpaw was 14-4 with a 338 ERA in 219 games with the Mets from 2015-18, and after sitting out 2020 after being released by the Giants before the truncated season, he re-signed with the Amazins' last winter after a throwing program convinced him that he still could be productive on the mound.
Blevins had said it was make the Mets or retirement – "Literally the only team I would have come back for is the Mets.," he said this spring – but agreed to go to the Alternate Site after being told in late March that he wasn't going to make the major-league roster.
Instead of a comeback, however, Blevins' career comes to an end as the Alternate Site model winds down, ahead of the start of the minor-league season next week.
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