After making history last season, Edwin Jackson had an opportunity to make the New York Mets the 15th team of his MLB career.
After Jackson signed with the Blue Jays last season, the 36-year-old hurler became the first player in MLB history to play for 14 different teams. Furthermore, the one-time All-Star may have had an opportunity to join his 15th franchise this past offseason.
According to Zach Buchanan of The Athletic, the New York Mets offered Jackson a minor-league deal before he decided to return to one of his many former teams back in February.
As Buchanan notes, Jackson received two minor-league offers earlier this year. One from the Arizona Diamondbacks and the other one was from the Mets. Despite his interest in continuing to make history, the right-hander chose to return to Arizona, which is where he and his family reside during the offseason.
In addition, Buchanan also states that Jackson received a late-spring opt-out clause in his deal with the Diamondbacks. As a result of the MLB hiatus, there’s a chance for that date to be pushed into the summer.
While we’ll likely never learn about the conditions involving the offer that the Mets sent to Jackson, but it probably included an opt-out clause as well.
During his 17 seasons in the majors, Jackson has played for the Dodgers, Rays, Tigers, Diamondbacks, White Sox, Cardinals, Nationals, Cubs, Braves, Marlins, Padres, Orioles, Athletics, and the Blue Jays.
Over his 1,960 career innings pitched, the man with more jerseys than any other player has produced a 4.78 ERA, 4.48 FIP, 4.41 xFIP, 1.47 WHIP, .275 OPP AVG, 17.6% strikeout rate, 9.1% walk rate, 43.3% GB rate, 36.2% FB rate, 11.2% HR/FB rate, 31.3% hard-hit rate along with a combined 17.5 fWAR rating.
Currently, Jackson hasn’t made any public statements about his future playing career. Although, the Mets could still be interested in him if he were to hit the open market at some point this season, whenever it begins.
So, there’s still a slight chance that Jackson could one day break his own record of playing for 14 organizations in a career. But, we’ll have to wait for that to happen until baseball resumes later this year.