Jacob deGrom is off to a historically great start to the 2021 season, leaving many wondering how the Mets right-hander can be so dominant.
One fan seemed to have a theory that is rather common these days: he is doctoring the baseball.
It has become a hot topic around the league in recent weeks, as MLB has vowed to clamp down on pitchers who abuse applying “sticky stuff” to the ball as it has reportedly become rampant throughout the league.
One fan tried to post a video claiming it to be evidence that deGrom was doing this, but deGrom’s teammates were not going to stand for this heresy.
Tomas Nido, who has caught deGrom several times over the last few seasons, including Saturday night, immediately disputed this idea and called on fellow catcher James McCann to vouch for him.
This led to a string of Mets teammates adamantly defending deGrom.
DeGrom has seen a modest uptick on his spin rate for his slider since 2019, increasing from 2,455 rpms to 2,600 rpms on his slider. He has seen his largest increase with his curveball, going from 2,569 rpms in 2019 to 2,724 this season, but he has only thrown that pitch three times this whole season.
Meanwhile, the spin rate on his fastball — a pitch he throws 63.4% of the time — has actually decreased just a bit since last season.
Other pitchers have had much more noticeable increases in spin rate over the last two seasons, such as Trevor Bauer, whose fastball has gone from 2,410 rpms to 2,822 rpms.
DeGrom is having one of the best starts to a season in MLB history, posting a 0.62 ERA through nine starts — the lowest ever to start a season.
Whether the dominance of his pitches has come naturally or not is nearly impossible to tell without hard evidence.
So, in the meantime, everyone can sit back and enjoy the show every fifth day.
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