The 2022 New York Mets were already World Series contenders before they welcomed back the best pitcher on the planet.
Their formidable lineup is sprinkled with the kind of serious veterans this franchise has been crying out for.
They have a top five starting rotation, spearheaded by a future Hall of Famer, backed up by the most dominant reliever in the sport. Steering the club to a commanding division lead is a revered skipper with 23 seasons of top-level coaching experience and three Manager of the Year Awards.
The New York Mets now have the final piece of their puzzle in pitcher Jacob deGrom
And if those riches weren’t enough, they now have the final piece to solve a 36-year-old puzzle.
Watching Jacob DeGrom throw a baseball over the last five seasons looks like what would happen if you took every limitation, every worry, every piece of modern conventional wisdom away from a pitcher and just let it fly.
Go and throw 102mph in the first inning, and average 99 with your fastball. Strike out 15 batters every start, throw that eye-popping slider as hard as it’ll go. And the results? He’s beyond the realm of pure numbers, and into names. He’s Tom Seaver, he’s Nolan Ryan, he’s ’68 Gibson and ’99 Pedro.
He takes the ball Saturday night against the Phillies at Citi Field sporting a 2.04 ERA with 792 strikeouts in 591.2 innings since the beginning of the 2018 season. He’s won two Cy Young Awards and would have cruised to a third last year if elbow inflammation hadn’t struck in July when his ERA was 1.08, the lowest of any starter in modern history.
A shoulder issue kept him from making his 2022 debut until August 2, when he returned to face the Nationals for five strong innings. Then he really came back last Sunday against the Braves.
His fastball touched 102mph, including his fastest ever strikeout at 101.6. The first 18 times the Braves – who are the reigning champions and have been on a tear since May – swung at a DeGrom slider, they hit thin air. They couldn’t even manage a measly foul ball, or top spin a weak grounder to the second baseman. He was, quite literally, untouchable.
The 2022 New York Mets were already World Series contenders before deGrom’s return
He had 12 strikeouts through 5.2 perfect innings, then gave up two runs, left the game and slammed his glove in the dugout. Even the greats are never happy.
That stunning display wrote him into the record books, with the most strikeouts (1,523) in a pitcher’s first 200 starts in MLB history.
And it capped a statement series from the Mets, who welcomed a surging Braves team to town and punched them in the mouth, taking four of five from them as New York stretched its division lead to 6.5 games.
Their winning percentage (.652) is the second-best in the majors and the second-best in franchise history – behind only the 1986 club, still the last Mets team to win it all.
The best pitcher on the planet could finally end 36 years of hurt by delivering the World Series
A lot of optimism has come to Queens to die since then, a lot of promising teams and a lot of heartbreaking failure.
Even saying that this team feels different is cause enough for nausea among Mets fans, who have been burned far too many times before to feel comfortable predicting anything other than a 36th consecutive dark winter.
Can this Mets team shake off the cursed tag that did for the 2007 club, which held a seven-game lead over Philadelphia with 17 games to go, then contrived to blow it? Or even the troubles they faced just 12 months ago, when they were in first place at the All-Star Break, then went 30-45 the rest of the way.
By any measure, however, this is not a normal New York Mets team.
This is not a normal Mets team – it starts with the new leadership – manager Buck Showalter
It starts with the new leadership – manager Buck Showalter made his name on the other side of town with the Yankees and burnished it three hours south in Baltimore.
He’s the perfect leader for a new era of serious, dependable Mets baseball, which for so long has been characterized by blunders.
His image runs right through the lineup, which was bolstered this year by veteran arrivals Mark Canha, Starling Marte and Eduardo Escobar.
Each has produced, protecting hometown hero Pete Alonso (29 HR) and allowing shortstop Francisco Lindor to ease out of his New York growing pains and remind everyone why he was handed a $341million contract last year.
With substance comes stars too – Max Scherzer was given the highest annual salary in baseball history to spend the next three years in New York.
Even at 37, his iron will is as strong as ever, and his undying commitment to winning – not to mention his 1.98 ERA – is rubbing off on the clubhouse. Chris Bassitt, another veteran addition, has been excellent in a strong starting rotation. At the back end of the bullpen, Edwin Diaz (1.39 ERA, 26 saves) has been the best reliever in baseball this year.
With substance comes stars too – Max Scherzer was given the highest annual salary
That grown-up culture of unflashy, stable success is perhaps why they didn’t make much of a splash at the trade deadline, adding three bench bats – Darin Ruf, Tyler Naquin and Daniel Vogelbach – and reliever Mychal Givens when all signs pointed to a marquee move for Cubs catcher Willson Contreras or Boston designated hitter JD Martinez.
Don’t upset things, was the message – even more surprising given that’s seemingly been billionaire owner Steve Cohen’s MO since he took over after the 2020 season.
The expensive, aggressive additions from baseball’s richest owner in the last two offseasons – Lindor, Scherzer, Marte – pushed their opening-day payroll to $265m, and Cohen has long insisted he wants a championship by his fifth season in charge.
With deGrom’s golden arm back in their ranks, Mets fans can finally begin to believe
In year two, the Mets already look primed to make a run – but a host of other contenders have their own case.
The Dodgers are on another planet right now, on pace to win 113 games after winning 32 of their last 37. The Padres added Juan Soto to Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis, while the Astros can take safety in their 4-0 record against the Mets this year.
And then there’s the Yankees, who slumped out of the All-Star Break but have Aaron Judge hitting a home run seemingly every day, Gerrit Cole fronting the rotation and addressing their every remaining need at the deadline.
But the Mets had set themselves up as an October threat this season even without DeGrom. And with his golden arm back in their ranks, their fans can finally start to believe.
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