Sandy finally got his man! His man being Jerry Blevins aka Mr. LOOGY aka Mr. Magoo aka Two Broke Arms aka the reliever formerly traded for Matt den Dekker. Sandy “took care of” the Mets bullpen deficiencies in less than 24 hours. When I say took care of I mean he brought back Fernando Salas (one year $3 million) and Jerry Blevins (one year $6 million and an option) and is going to run the same crew out there in 2017.

This should come as no surprise to any readers of The Metssiah. I told all of you the second the offseason started that the Mets were going to double down in 2017 with the exact same roster as last season. No meaningful additions or changes. I called this one.

And yes I spent the entire offseason worrying that Sandy wasn’t going to have the financial flexibility to even get that done. I mean technically he didn’t quite accomplish it because the Wilpons refused to pay to re-sign Bartolo Colon or Kelly Johnson. It’s not exactly the same team. It’s not any better on paper. But the hope is that the team is blessed with better health and that the young pitching dominates. Praying for health is a pretty standard daily practice in Metsland. Ray Ramirez swears by it.

I’m not going to use this post for another rant about the crappy Mets offseason. Instead I’m going to acknowledge the biggest takeaway from BlevinsGate. Sandy always seems to get his man on his terms. He did it with Yoenis Cespedes, and he always seems to do it when “his man” is an average player engaged in a one-year vs. two year deal standoff.

The Wilpons are lucky to have such a competent GM who can save them a few bucks here and there. The salary savings certainly don’t benefit me in any way. It’s not like Jerry takes a one-year deal and then they slash ticket prices or something. But it’s nice that Sandy never gives up and never seems to worry. And why would he worry? He goes into these “negotiations” with absolutely nothing to lose.

Player: “Hey I’d love to be a Met. I’d like a [insert multi-year deal request].”

Sandy: “Nope. One-year deal only. Frankly ownership will be happy if you just turn it down completely. But let me know.”

Then I imagine he gets up and walks out of the room. Lucky for the fans, guys like Blevins and Cespedes really want to be here. They like this team, the players, the fans, and this town. So they choose to stick around. Works for me.

Does it make me jealous to see the Dodgers sign Sergio Romo and the Giants sign Mark Melancon to bolster their respective bullpens while the Mets trot out the same crew? Yes it does. But whatever. At least we kept Blevins and Salad. Let’s just start the season.