New lefties Jerry Blevins and Alex Torres have been issued jerseys No. 13 and 53, respectively, the Mets said Tuesday.
Blevins’ assignment was no surprise as he’s worn that number in previous stos in Oakland and Washington, while Torres takes a vacant number that follows his righthanded namesake’s 52. Bobby Abreu was the last guy to wear 53 for the Mets; before that it was Jeremy Hefner. Josh Satin was the last guy to wear 13 for the Mets.
Good morning. Quick note to catch up on the rapidly evolving and possibly improving 2014 Mets.
Kyle Farnsworth, whom I don’t like, has taken over closing duties from Jose Valverde, whom I don’t trust, but the question remains who’s next once Farnsworth has proven untrustworthy. Seems so far that Gonzalez Germen has the results and Jeurys Familia the stuff but I have this crazy notion of shocking the world behind Dice K-loser. Unless things get really bad we’ll probably learn again this year that who closes doesn’t matter all that much, as long as someone does.
On the other hand, who plays first base every day does matter, and I’m relieved to see they finally did something about that. I ran out of patience with Ike Davis a few years ago and long since resigned myself to the fact that he was destined to go cheaply in a trade. There’s some buzz out there that the Player To Be Named is significant; I’d guess potentially so, given that’s the best way to describe Ike too. So long, Ike. Like Steve Trachsel you were a pretty good representative of No. 29 but it didn’t end well.
This morning we get the news that ancient chunky hit machine Bobby Abreu will arrive to take Ike ‘ place as lefthanded pinch hitter. I have to say I like having a “professional hitter” with no dreams of being a starter ever again to be hitting late-inning doubles for me, and Abreu joins what looks to be a pretty solid bench.
Abreu is notable for having worn the oddish No. 53 all those years with the Phillies. I can’t imagine the shelved Jeremy Hefner would mind loaning it to Bobby because I can’t imagine a scenario where their active careers overlap again. Twenty-nine is available too now but, no.
