#ryan-helsley

#ryan-helsley

"I missed starting probably the first half of my career, but once I really started closing, I didn't think about it as much," Helsley said. "Learning a new pitch would be something I could pick up, obviously, but it'd be a learning curve throughout this first year to figure out how to be a major league starting pitcher." Helsley said he "(knows what he's) capable of as a reliever," even as he expressed confidence that he could be a starter.

But there's another level the Blue Jays 'pen can reach and Toronto seems ready to dish out some cash to make it happen. They have previously been linked to Edwin Diaz, while they were also in talks with Raisel Iglesias before he re-signed with the Braves. Now, a Blue Jays beat reporter says Toronto is interested in a reliever who was one of their targets at the trade deadline this past season.

Had Helsley done his job perfectly Wednesday afternoon and nothing else about the game he entered at Comerica Park had been different from what it was, the Mets would have still lost, albeit by fewer runs. But Helsley did not do his job perfectly. He came into the seventh inning of a one-run game - Tigers 3 Mets 2 - and proceeded to give up a leadoff single, a walk, then a three-run homer to Kerry Carpenter.