Brandon Tierney has been adamant about Jacob deGrom bringing down the velocity in his rehab starts to avoid another injury, but the Mets ace waited until his potential final rehab start on Wednesday to do that.
After consistently hitting triple digits in his previous four rehab starts, deGrom was living in the 95-98 mph range against Omaha, allowing four runs on four hits in four innings of work. BT finally saw the careful velo that he had been waiting for, but the fact that it came after maxing out in his previous outings gives him some concern.
"Suddenly out of nowhere today, despite many people including myself imploring him to dial down the velo, he is suddenly at 95-96," BT said. "Is that because he is proactively dialing it down, or it's just not there, which leads to a different discussion?
"It just seems odd that suddenly he's right where I've been asking him to live…that's not really the logical approach. The logical approach would have been, 'When I first come back off the extended absence, let me work my way from 95-96 and then to 100-101 with frequency. Not the other way around."
DeGrom allowed two home runs and threw a total of 67 pitches, and with his rehab clock set to expire in less than a week, his next start could be back in the majors, where he would need his elite velocity to pitch to the level he was at before his injuries in 2021. But many, including BT, wonder if it's that velocity that leads to all of his injuries.
Tiki is less concerned, and believes the dip in velocity was more related to deGrom's desire to control the strike zone and focus on location.
"He's probably frustrated by walking guys, that's what it is," Tiki said. "In the second inning, he walks three guys. One after the home run, and two before the home run, and probably says 'I'm gonna throw strikes, I'm gonna throw fastballs.'"
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