Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Dunce Cap Award: Jenrry Mejia

As a Mets fan, I am appalled and disappointed with this news.

Reliever Jenrry Mejia, who had been activated from the suspended list earlier this month, was busted again for performance enhancing drugs on Tuesday, and gets a 162 game ban, which will extend into the 2016 season. Mejia's 1st suspension, under the new guidelines, left him ineligible for post-season play this year, and now, he's also ineligible for the 2016 post-season.

It's easy to assume, too, that Mejia has pitched his last game for the Mets, who are in the thick of a pennant race for the first time in seven years. He has had injury issues in his career, which slowed his development (I still have his rookie cards from 2010), and ended up missing Opening Day in April with an injury. That enabled Jeurys Familia to move into the closer's role, so that problem was solved rather quickly, though Familia has struggled since the All-Star break. On Monday, the Mets acquired Tyler Clippard from Oakland for a minor leaguer. Clippard, formerly with the Yankees & Washington, now slides into the set-up role Mejia had shared with another former closer, Bobby Parnell, and gives the Mets another experienced closer.

When I first saw the headline on TV Tuesday night, my first thought was, yeah, Mejia is done in New York. Maybe in the majors, period. How could he be that gullible to go back to the same PED that got him in trouble in the first place? Again, consider his injury history. His agent, whomever it is, didn't exactly help him out here.

In New York, he'll be considered a flash in the pan. He had a very good year last year as the Mets' closer, but now, Mejia will have to wear a Dunce Cap to illustrate how he's closed his own career  due to his own stupidity.

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