JustASC

Okay class, let’s get all our giggles out now: The Mets have acquired reliever  J.J. Putz to shore up their sorry bullpen.

The thing about the word putz is that it’s a lot filthier in the original Yiddish than in the comic way it it is usually used by English-speakers.  As maven Michael Wex explains in Just Say Nu, his indispensible guide to Yiddish idioms, shvants “actually serves as the somewhat less obscene version” of putz, and shvantz itself is a doozie:

Shvants, the equivalent of “cock” or “prick,” has further extended senses that correspond to “asshole, dick, jerk…”

So in conclusion: Yikes. Poor Mr. Putz is bound to mess up on the mound at some point (which already sounds dirty), at which point you can expect the headline writers at the Daily News and the N.Y. Post to have a field day.