Jerry Blevins

Jerry Blevins

Blevins with the Mets in 2016
Free agent
Pitcher
Born: (1983-09-06) September 6, 1983
Johnson City, Tennessee
Bats: Left Throws: Left
MLB debut
September 16, 2007, for the Oakland Athletics
MLB statistics
(through 2016 season)
Win–loss record 20–11
Earned run average 3.44
Strikeouts 361
Teams
Jerry Blevins
Medal record
Men’s baseball
Representing  United States
Baseball World Cup
2007 Tianmu National team

Jerry Richard Blevins (born September 6, 1983) is an American professional baseball pitcher who is a free agent. He has played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Oakland Athletics from 2007 through 2013, the Washington Nationals in 2014 and the New York Mets in 2015 and 2016.

College career

After graduating from Arcadia High School in, Arcadia, Ohio, Blevins walked on to the University of Dayton baseball team, where he pitched for two years. He had a 7–4 record in 21 games while playing for Dayton.

Professional career

Chicago Cubs

Blevins was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in the 17th (516th overall) round of the 2004 Major League Baseball Draft. He signed with the club on June 23 of that year, and began his pro career with the Single-A Boise Hawks, where he pitched 23 games.

In 2005, he pitched for the Single-A Peoria Chiefs, but returned to Boise for the 2006 season. In 2006, he also pitched for the Single-A Daytona Cubs and the Double-A West Tenn Diamond Jaxx.

Blevins began the 2007 season with the Daytona Cubs. He pitched in 15 games there and had a 1–0 record with a 0.38 ERA before being promoted to the Double-A Tennessee Smokies on May 15, 2007. He pitched in 23 games for the Smokies, in which he had a 2–2 record with a 1.53 ERA. Blevins pitched a total of 38 games in the Cubs organization and had a 3–2 record with a 1.02 ERA.

Oakland Athletics

Blevins was traded to the Oakland Athletics, along with catcher Rob Bowen, for catcher Jason Kendall on July 16, 2007.[1]

The Athletics, upon receiving Blevins, optioned him to Double-A Midland. He went 1–3 there with a 3.32 ERA in 17 games. He was promoted to the Sacramento River Cats, the Athletics Triple-A affiliate, on August 31, 2007. Before the River Cats season ended, he pitched in one game in which he did not give a run and got the win in 223 scoreless innings pitched. Blevins helped the River Cats win the Pacific Coast League championship. After the win, Blevins was promoted to the Athletics major league club on September 15, 2007. Blevins pitched for four different minor league teams in 2007 and had a combined 5–5 record with a 1.63 ERA in 56 games. He also struck out 11.87 batters per nine innings and had a total of 102 strikeouts in 7713 innings.

On September 16, 2007, Blevins made his major league debut, coming into the game in the ninth inning against the Texas Rangers. He pitched a perfect ninth inning and struck out David Murphy.

Blevins was designated for assignment on May 23, 2011.[2] He was later re-added back to the 40-man roster, only to be designated for assignment again on July 19.[3] He was re-added to the 40-man roster a day later.

Blevins pitching for the Oakland Athletics in 2012

Blevins earned one save during the 2012 season, also his second save in his career in a clutch relief when A's closer Grant Balfour allowed two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning making the score 6–5 against the Los Angeles Angels. Blevins came in with the tying run at third and winning run at first, but he struck out Kendrys Morales and grounded Howard Kendrick into a double play to earn the save.

Blevins signed a one-year, $1.1 million deal with the Athletics to avoid arbitration before the 2013 season. On April 29, Blevins got the win in a 19 inning game against the Angels, pitching 1.2 scoreless innings. The Athletics won the game in the bottom of the 19th on a walk-off Brandon Moss home run. Blevins also batted in that game, striking out Barry Enright in the 18th inning. In 67 appearances in 2013, Blevins went 5-0 with 4 holds and a 3.15 ERA, striking out 52 in 60 innings.

Washington Nationals

On December 11, 2013, Blevins was traded to the Washington Nationals for minor league outfielder Billy Burns.[4] Blevins finished his 2014 season 2-3, 4.87 ERA, 66 strikeouts, 23 walks, giving up 31 runs in 64 games in 57.1 innings pitched.

New York Mets

Blevins with the Mets in 2016

On March 30, 2015, Blevins was traded to the New York Mets for outfielder Matt den Dekker.[5]

On April 19, 2015, Blevins was hit by a comebacker and suffered a distal radius fracture of the left arm and was placed on the 15-day disabled list.[6] Blevins was recovering when he slipped on a curb and re-fractured his arm again and missed the rest of the season. Blevins finished the 2015 season 1-0, 4 strikeouts, 5 innings pitched in 7 games with no runs allowed.

On December 15, 2015, Blevins signed a one-year, four million dollar deal with incentives.[7]

Personal life

Blevins enjoys sushi and is a fan of Nick Jonas.[8]

References

  1. Urban, Mychael. "A's deal catcher Kendall to Cubs ", MLB.com, July 16, 2007. Accessed September 16, 2007.
  2. Athletics Designate Jerry Blevins For Assignment, MLBTradeRumors.com, May 23, 2011.
  3. Nicholson-Smith, Ben. "A's Designate Jerry Blevins For Assignment". MLBTradeRumors.com. Retrieved July 19, 2011.
  4. "Nationals acquire LHP Jerry Blevins from Athletics". Curly W Live. Retrieved December 27, 2015.
  5. "MASN News & Information: Nats acquire outfielder Matt den Dekker from Mets". MASNsports. Retrieved December 27, 2015.
  6. SI Wire (April 19, 2015). "New York Mets place Jerry Blevins, Travis d'Arnaud on disabled list - MLB - SI.com". SI.com. Retrieved December 27, 2015.
  7. "Mets re-sign LH reliever Jerry Blevins". SNY. Retrieved December 27, 2015.
  8. https://www.sny.tv/video/841037083/mets-first-pitch-hello-jerry
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jerry Blevins.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/3/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.