Is Jacob deGrom poised for another big year?

There are a little over two weeks to go in spring training, but if you listened to Mike Puma in the New York Post yesterday, you’d think that Mets’ ace Jacob deGrom is ready for the season to start right now. Against the Houston Astros on Thursday, deGrom broke 100 mph on three consecutive pitches to Stephen Souza, Jr. – before striking him out with a slider. That ended the first of a three-inning, seven-strikeout spring tune up, during which he allowed no baserunners. While we fans can get giddy reading stuff like this, with visions of deGrom having a 1969 Tom Seaver type of a year, finally taking us to a promised land that has been but a far off glimmer for 35 years, we need to remember, though, that this is still March. There is an old bromide that pennants are won in the spring – hard training, meticulous prep and a lot of other grizzled hyperboles. To an extent this is true, especially in other sports like football and basketball. But baseball is a bit different. No other sport has the 162-game grind that stretches from mid-winter to past Halloween. Pennants generally are won by the team with the best pitching that gets hot at the right time.

Which, of course, brings us back to deGrom…

From the beginning, he has stood out on the Mets’ roster: the odd name, the flowing locks, the early Tommy John surgery. We’d heard a bit about him before he made his debut in 2014, while we were still mourning to loss of erstwhile ace Matt Harvey to his own TJ procedure. That night – I was there – he held the New York Yankees almost totally in check and only took the loss because David Wright was slow to turn a double play in a one-run defeat. We thought, “hmm, maybe, with this kid…” Turns out, there was no “maybe” about it. This guy was the genuine stuff, with some genuine. stuff. His legacy was cemented in game five of the 2015 NLDS against the Los Angeles Dodgers when, having not much in the tank from the start, he was able to gut his way through six innings until the Daniel Murphy Cavalry arrived to get them to the next round. Soon, with Harvey in eclipse, deGrom emerged as that ace, and yes, if I may dare say it, on a Seaver type level. He won two consecutive Cy Young Awards in 2018 and 2019, which no Met, not even Seaver, ever did and just missed a third in last year’s truncated festivities.

deGrom is an anomaly among modern day pitchers, in that he was kind of a late bloomer. This will be just his eighth season in the Big Leagues, but he’s 34 years old. Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw, for example is two years younger, yet got a six-year head start in the Majors. So, it would appear that deGrom’s candle will burn bright, but very quickly. He needs two more years to even qualify for Hall of Fame consideration – in this guy’s opinion, two more like the last three will get him in, easily, but that’s neither here nor there. The Mets are a “win-now” team, in some circles considered the favorite to win the NL East this year. They will need every quality start from deGrom they can get to make that a reality, not to mention dominant innings from Marcus Stroman and Carlos Carrasco – whose complaint of elbow soreness this week could be considered “troubling” — and a strong return to health by Noah Syndergaard. deGrom’s spring gives us all hope that the pundits are correct, that the Mets will have enough to pull down at least a Wild Card spot. If he has a bad year, it could spell doom.

Now, don’t get me wrong: there is no indication that deGrom is coming to the end of the line or that there is any fear that his health is at risk or that his age is going to catch up quickly. It’s just that it’s easy to get excited when velocities are dialed up in March. Heck, Syndegaard threw 101 on his first pitch of spring 2019 and ended up having an oddly ineffective year. We are Mets fans, conditioned to hope for the best and expect the worst. It’s what we do, what we excel at.

Let’s hope Jacob deGrom doesn’t leave it all in rehearsal and saves some gas for the Show.