A strange couple of weeks for Jacob deGrom and the Mets

It can safely be said that so far, the 2016 New York Mets’ season isn’t anything we signed up for. First of all, there’s this stumbling, troubling 3-5 start. As with all statistics in any game, that’s the bottom line. Did you win or did you lose? The fact that the Mets – overall consensus pick to repeat as NL East champs, at the very least – couldn’t solve the reputedly hapless Phillies or pain-in-the-butt Marlins was baffling. No one, not even the manager, could get a handle on it. It was cold. Having three days off the first week threw them off their rhythm. Having to face the team that beat them in the World Series right out of the gate was daunting. They don’t know if Jacob deGrom will pitch the home opener – more on that one in a minute. And so on…

These were the “explanations” we heard to sort out the fact that the team simply isn’t hitting. Right now, the BABIP gods are not smiling on Flushing. The Mets are hitting in some rotten luck right now. Your intrepid columnist was in attendance at Sunday’s game against the Phils and from the vantage point of seats in dead-center field, it looked like every hard hit ball found a glove, save for Yoenis Cespedes’s blast into the left field deck. As a team the Mets have a BABIP of .250, obviously not sustainable over 162 games. Team-wide slumps happen. They’re not fun when they do. Any squad will look listless and even disinterested when in the grip of one. If you’re the optimistic brand of fanboy, you look at this and say, “better now than in late-September/October.” The glass-half-empty crowd, though, will say “if they don’t break out soon, there won’t be an October to worry about.” Look, if it were easy, everybody would do it. That’s one of the things that makes baseball great: the fact that it’s hard. They’ll be alright, but it’s frustrating right now. That’s the life of the fan.

In deGrom’s case, things are a little murkier. On Friday, Citi Field Opening Day was packed and pretty cold. Came around the third inning or so, there was snow. It was the barest hint of snow, but snow nonetheless. None of us were sure how long deGrom would go, seeing as he was expecting the call that his wife was going into labor. When he departed after six innings, it was assumed that the call had come and he was hightailing to LaGuardia to head to Florida. It was only on the post-game show that a possible lat issue came to light. While dealing with that, he did get the call and his wife gave birth to their son on Tuesday. So now, it’s about the lat. GM Sandy Alderson has yet to put deGrom on the DL or the paternity list to get some roster relief – reliever Logan Verrett made deGrom’s start yesterday and pitched brilliantly. Now we’re hearing that deGrom will throw again on Friday and be evaluated from there. So it’s been a fairly murky start for Jacob deGrom.

The same can also be said of his teammates.

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