BY : MIKE RIFKIN
“ Hi I’m Jacob DeGrom and I have a chance with my stuff to just dominate baseball for years to come.” Joe Buck was right, Jacob Degrom dominated baseball and Friday night he returns to Queens as a member of the Texas Rangers.
DeGrom came up in 2014 and posted a 9-6 record with a 2.69 ERA and had 144 strikeouts in 140 innings pitched, on his way to the NL Rookie Of The Year. 2015 Degrom went 14-8 with a 2.54 ERA and had 205 strikeouts. But it was his bulldog performance in game five of the NLDS against the Dodgers where you really saw his makeup. DeGrom outdueled Zack Greinke in the win. Without his best stuff DeGrom still gave the Mets six innings and gave up two runs.
In 2018 and 19 DeGrom won a combined 21 games but with phenomenal ERAs of 1.70 and 2.43 and posting over 250 strikeouts in both seasons DeGrom was able to win back to back NL CY Young awards. The problem was that those Mets teams were not very good and they wasted great pitching seasons that fans in Queens hadn’t seen since Doc Gooden.
Then injuries started to pile up, but in 2022 excitement was in the air when he returned and just dominated the Atlanta Braves. Degrom’s last start as a Met was game two of the Wild Card Series against the Padres. DeGrom went six innings and gave up two runs on five hits and eight strikeouts in the win.
That winter DeGrom left the Mets and signed a five year 185 million dollar contract with the Texas Rangers. DeGrom left the Mets tied for seventh all time in franchise history in wins (82), first in ERA (2.52), third in WAR (41.2) fourth in strikeouts (1,607). Let us also not forget that great rotation of 2014 DeGrom was the least talked about prospect, but had the best career as a Met as the other guys. When he takes the mound tonight, even though the game means a lot in terms of the standings, the bigger story is a legend returns to a place he once called home. We often talk about retiring numbers. At some point the Mets should retire 48, because he was special and at times Degrominant.
The Sports Insanity Network 