As our pastime, baseball has often doubled as a gatekeeper to history and tradition. While that's refreshing at times, it also has left MLB stuck in the past and culturally lapped by more progressive sports like the NBA and NFL. From the glacial pace of their games to frowning upon fun home run celebrations, baseball has been viewed as inflexible and unwilling to keep pace with the key demographic.
So the NL Cy Young voting has to be refreshing to frustrated MLB fans, especially those who support the Mets. Instead of smiling upon the pitcher with the most wins, they actually voted for the best pitcher on the planet this year - Jacob deGrom.
You may have seen his stats, but they are so staggering that they bear repeating. DeGrom finished the 2018 season with a 10-9 record, with a 1.70 ERA, a 0.91 WHIP, .196 BAA, 269 strikeouts and 46 walks. He set records for consecutive quality starts (23) and for starts allowing three or fewer runs (29). He's also one of just three pitchers over the last century to pitch at least 200 innings while posting 250 strikeouts and fewer than 50 walks.
DeGrom allowed just 10 home runs all year, while Max Scherzer allowed 23. DeGrom had an astonishing 0.69 WHIP with runners in scoring position, allowing just 19 hits to the 126 batters he faced in those situations. And so on.
While this is a sweet moment for the Mets and their fans, it's also most bittersweet for all involved or invested. The Mets have tumbled down the standings since their enchanted run in 2015, which ended in the Fall Classic after they blew three games in which they had the lead in the 8th inning. At 78-85, the Mets finished in fourth place in the NL East this season. The rotation that felt cemented and historic just two years ago has been stripped down to deGrom and an injury-addled Noah Syndergaard. There's still time for Zack Wheeler and Steven Matz to reach their potential, but the glow and buzz are gone.
Still, it has to be heartening to see the BWAA, a most calcified lot, bending their ears and algorithms to fit deGrom for the Cy Young. Indeed, the Mets' ace got all but one first-place vote, giving greater credence to overall performance and relying less on the myopic view of wins and losses as the main metric for a starting pitcher.
And for those who are quick to jam the reset button and boot both deGrom and Syndergaard for prospects, perhaps you will reconsider. Whatever the Mets get for one or both of their best starters won't be enough, because it rarely is. Brodie Van Wagenen, seen in the clubhouse high-fiving the Mets brass as the Cy Young was announced, needs to channel his inner agent and get his former client signed.
Sure, only the Mets would hire the one guy who would perform the GM job with clashing impulses. It feels like Van Wagenen once represented half the club he now runs. How will he get his best pitcher fair market value while keeping the Mets solvent and salient? That's his job now, not just to get players paid but also to keep the Mets fiscally responsible.
But at least for today and tomorrow the headlines belong to deGrom, who somehow pitched one of the best seasons in history despite the team's wholesale regression. He was the one pillar in a baseball building that crumbled all around him. DeGrom is an astonishing story, not just because he's so good at pitching but also because he didn't start his career as a pitcher. When Omar Minaya plucked deGrom from the 9th round of the 2010 draft he was a light-hitting shortstop who had only dabbled with pitching in college.
Maybe the most refreshing thing about deGrom, other than his diving right arm, is the kind of guy he is. Despite the records and rewards of this regal season, deGrom keeps his low-key regularity. We may recall a pitcher of brief renown who soared to the top of Big Apple baseball before he truly deserved it.
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Before coming close to pitching the kind of season deGrom just posted, Matt Harvey was already swathed in sexy handles like “the Dark Knight of Gotham.” And with those nicknames came the paparazzi and the Page Six swagger, and the courtside seats and supermodels. After all the earned runs and unearned fame, Harvey famously flamed out and was most recently pining pitch for the lowly Cincinnati Reds.
If Jacob deGrom fails to repeat this spectacular performance, it's because it can't be repeated, not because his head will be too fat to fit in the dugout. He has no posse, no rap sheet, and no demands. And now one well-earned Cy Young Award. Time will tell where deGrom fits in history, but there's no doubt he just had one of the best seasons in baseball history.