Regional Sports

Will Mets waste deGrom’s career?

Mets ace Jacob deGrom made his 32nd and final start of the season Wednesday night at Citi Field. He presented his final case to the baseball writers about winning back-to-back NL Cy Young award.

Yet, there was no buzz that surrounded the stadium. It was dead the entire game if we are being honest. Not many fans showed up. It might as well been a Tampa Bay Rays home game.

This shows Mets fans know better. They have standards as not to waste their time and money attending a game when the season is a lost cause. They know the Mets have no chance of making the playoffs with their tragic number being 1 as in either a Milwaukee Brewers loss or a loss by them would have them be eliminated. They also showed no interest about their star going for a personal award.

With the Milwaukee Brewers taking a 9-2 victory over the Cincinnati Reds Wednesday night that eliminated the Mets from participating in the postseason, Mets fans had the right idea. It probably wasn’t surprising they didn’t even watch deGrom’s start on television. They know the score. Personal achievements do not result in happiness after another nonplayoff season for the Mets.

deGrom finished his final start with gusto by pitching seven shutout innings, retiring 14 in a row, allowing two hits and striking out seven in the Mets’ 10-3 victory over the Miami Marlins.

Watching this game, a Mets fan has to wonder if the Mets are wasting the prime of deGrom’s career. As special as he is, it’s hard to enjoy when the Mets played themselves out of the playoffs for the third straight season. Not even the Mets making these last two months interesting by being in the wild-card race after being 11 games under. 500 can make this feel good.

The Mets featured a Cy Young award candidate and a Rookie of the Year award favorite and MVP candidate in Pete Alonso, and in the end, they have nothing to show for it. Only losers celebrate personal awards. It has no meaning when a team is a bystander come October.

It’s getting quite old seeing the franchise celebrate what their individual players do since that’s the only thing they can sell. This franchise does not have a great winning pedigree. How bad is it? This season will be the third winning season in 11 seasons, and it will be the first winning season since 2016. For a big-market team, that is unacceptable.

When deGrom had the seasons he had the last two seasons, it’s ridiculous that he won’t get a chance to showcase himself in front of a national audience in the postseason for the second straight year. This makes this season so frustrating and infuriating.

It’s hard to celebrate a winning season without the playoffs. His season tends to be meaningless without a playoff appearance. This explains the lack of atmosphere Wednesday night, which his start turned out to be an afterthought.

It’s too bad because deGrom pitched himself to an excellent season. He finished his 2019 campaign by going 11-8 with a 2.43 ERA and a 0.97 WHIP while hitters hit .207 against him. He threw 23 scoreless innings and 255 strikeouts to end the season.

For the third straight season, he pitched 200 or more innings and threw 200 strikeouts or more. Prior to Wednesday night, he lowered his ERA from 2.71 to 2.51 in his last two consecutive scoreless starts. After holding to a 3.98 ERA as late as May 21, he led the majors with a 1.89 ERA, which bolsters his case to winning the Cy Young.

He may be the first Met to win back-to-back Cy Youngs. Not even Jerry Koosman, Dwight Gooden or Tom Seaver did that.

deGrom re-signed with the Mets but also he was comfortable being in the organization and playing in New York, but he felt he could make many more playoff appearances with them. Last time he pitched in the postseason was 2015, which was the season the Mets played in the World Series. He thought he could pitch in October with the way the Mets were playing this season.

He now has to wonder if 2015 was the best it got for him. He is not going to get any younger. The 31-year-old starter may have three more good seasons in him at best. If things don’t get better, how long will it be before he asks for a trade? It would be understandable if he did with the Mets going nowhere.

It’s hard to believe the Mets will be any better next season. The Atlanta Braves are not going anywhere, and they could have a monopoly on the NL East for a long time to come with a young, exciting nucleus in Ronald Acuna Jr. Ozzie Albies and Austin Riley. The Washington Nationals should be good, too with their young trio of Trea Turner, Juan Soto and Victor Robles.

Yes, the Mets can tout they have future MVP candidate Pete Alonso and Jeff McNeil, but who else? The bullpen will be a problem. They may have to trade Noah Syndergaard since he is not emotionally fit to pitch in New York. Zack Wheeler likely will leave as a free agent. Does anyone trust first-year Mets general manager Brodie Van Wagenen to get it right in addressing the team’s issues when he did not get it right this season? The barren farm system leaves so much to be desired with a lack of pitchers. What does it tell you when the Mets fielded obscure guys in Brooks Pounders, Paul Sewald, Chris Flexen, Tyler Bashlor, Jacob Rahme, Waller Lockett and Chris Mazza in relief and hope to find eureka in them?

It may just be that the Mets may have to trade deGrom eventually for him to pitch in the postseason. Imagine if he pitched for the Houston Astros, Los Angeles Dodgers or Yankees, he would have won 20 games this season.

The Mets may reach the point if things don’t get better in a year or two. They don’t want to trade him because he is their meal ticket to make revenue, bring fans to the games and field a viewer audience. The Wilpons expressed no interest in rebuilding.

But something must give sooner or later. The Mets can’t be stuck in quicksand. deGrom does not want to continue to waste his great career for a team going nowhere.

The Mets can tout a winning season. Mets manager Mickey Callaway will keep being optimistic by citing about the core players on the roster. The organization won’t ever give up spewing bull about this team being all in next season. They will market the season of deGrom.

All of this sounds good, but again it won’t change the fact deGrom made his last start of the season instead of pitching on Sunday for a chance to play in the postseason or pitch in October this season.

Another waste of what was a masterpiece season by the Mets ace.

 

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