When the Rangers announced last week that Jacob deGrom was going to miss a few days due to an issue in his side, Mets fans either laughed or commiserated, depending on how they felt about deGrom’s exit from New York.
From 2018-20, deGrom was arguably the best pitcher in baseball, winning back-to-back Cy Youngs in 2018 and 2019 and leading the NL in strikeouts while finishing third in the truncated 2020 season. But, during that dominant run, the injuries began, as he missed time a different elbow issue in each of his Cy seasons.
Then came 2021, where right side tightness cost him two weeks in May, and “forearm tightness” cost him the entire second half…which ended up being more than a full season after a stress reaction in his scapula kept him out until August of last season.
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So, you can understand how some fans would be rubbed the wrong way when deGrom consistently said he would be opting out of his deal at the end of the season, even though he missed a full calendar year of action with two separate injuries.
“I was feeling great until the scapula issue. Stress reaction to the scapula, who’s heard of that?” deGrom said Sunday, in an exclusive with the New York Post’s Jon Heyman. “If I don’t answer then every time I pitch I’m asked, well, do you know if you’re opting out. That was just so I would not have to answer that every five days. The plan was to go out and pitch healthy. It was never, hey, I’m opting out and leaving.”
The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray, however, and in deGrom’s case, they did. Outside noise aside, the fact that he made just 26 starts and pitched only 160 innings over two seasons weighed heavily on deGrom’s mind.
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“That was frustrating. The goal is to pitch 30-plus times. And when you can’t do that you feel like you are letting the team down,” deGrom told Heyman. “Anytime you miss time, it’s extremely frustrating. You want to go out and compete with your team and give the guys a chance.”
He’s feeling good so far this spring, though, quick issue with his side now gone, and looks forward to going back to being the horse he was years ago.
“Every time I took the mound previously with the Mets and moving forward, that’s my goal: to make every start and to try to put my team in position to win,” deGrom said. “I felt like I tried to do that in New York. That’s my goal here, to try to go out every fifth day and put us in position.”
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN
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