Just Mets

Over their first 84 games of the season, the Mets somehow put together a bullpen that compiled a 2.79 ERA, the fifth best in the sport.

They did that despite injuries to Josh Edgin, Buddy Carlyle, Vic Black, Jerry Blevins, Erik Goeddel, Rafael Montero, and at least partially because of an injury to their originally projected closer, Jenrry Mejia.

Mejia was injured on opening day in Washington while warming up to close out the first win of the season for the club. Instead, the Mets were forced to turn to Jeurys Familia.

And, they haven’t looked back.

But the main reason for that is after just four days on the disabled list, Mejia was banned from the sport for 80 games because he violated the league’s performance enhancing drug policy.

But despite what appeared to be a massive loss for the bullpen, the Mets bullpen hasn’t missed a beat. Familia has emerged as a potential All-Star with 23 saves and an ERA near 1.00 for the year.

And on Tuesday, Mejia returned to the Mets after serving his 80-game suspension, having lost his job as the club’s closer after converting 28 saves for the Mets in 2014.

“He’s been doing a great job,” Mejia said about Familia. “I like what he’s doing.”

As for his suspension, Mejia didn’t offer too many details about what led to the ban, instead wanting to focus on what lies ahead.

“I come here to play baseball,” Mejia explained. “I don’t want to speak too much about it. That was before. Now I’m here to play baseball and do the best I can.”

Mejia said he addressed a few teammates about what he had done, but would not divulge those conversations to the media.

Mejia didn’t offer a public apology, which was not totally unexpected.

“It is what it is,” Mejia said. “That will stay in the past. I did what I did and now I will come here to move forward and do the best I can on the field.”

While the words he chose to use suggest some indifference, Michael Cuddyer said he expressed remorse to him upon arriving to AT&T Park on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Terry Collins is happy to have one of his primary weapons back for the second half of the year. He has said on several occasions over the last couple of weeks Mejia is expected to be used in late game situations almost immediately upon returning.

Like Mejia, Collins wouldn’t discuss anything Mejia might have said upon returning on Tuesday.

“It doesn’t matter. It happened,” Collins explained. “The guy’s back. I’m not going to live three months ago. He’s here to help. All we talked about is what he’s going to do from here on out. I know this kid very, very well. I know he feels terrible about what happened. We’ve got to get ready for the future.”

It’s clear the team and the player are simply attempting to sweep this under the rug, as they should. Whether Mejia apologizes in public or not, it doesn’t change anything anyway. And, any sort of public contriteness contradicts his statement he made through the Players Association at the time of the suspension, which is probably not what the union would want him to do.

Sandy Alderson also believes there is no need to offer a public apology, as he has paid his dues and done what he’s needed to do behind closed doors.

“He made a mistake. He admitted that,” Alderson explained on Tuesday. “Hew paid a penalty. Whether I think he think he needs to express some public contrition or not, I know that privately he’s done so.

“I’ve talked with him,” Alderson continued. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s over. But I think he understands he made a mistake. At the same time, I don’t think there’s any need for him to have to sort of publicly recognize that. I think he has informally and privately.”

He’s right. Mejia’s back. It’s time to move on and for Mejia to finally start to help the Mets win games again, as he should’ve been doing for the past 3 1/2 months.