DeGrom to the Hall

Ever since he entered the barbershop to remove the long golden locks, to a shorter, more generic haircut, it seems like Jacob DeGrom has transformed into the best pitcher in baseball and one of the most dominant pitchers of the 21st century. While the latter of that statement is true, there was no sudden transformation for DeGrom, and he in fact has been building towards this incredible peak since being drafted in 2010.

Drafted by the Mets in the ninth round of the 2010 MLB Draft, DeGrom was considered a long shot to develop into anything more than a backend rotation or spot starter, being transformed from a lanky shortstop to a lanky pitcher, not long before being drafted. DeGrom struggled in A Ball in a short sample size in 2010, and received Tommy John Surgery shortly after, but pitched to some success in the minors over the next few seasons. In 2014, Degrom was having himself an excellent season in Las Vegas AAA, pitching to a 2.58 ERA before being called up due to injuries in the Mets rotation; to make a spot start against the Yankees on May 15th. In what would become an unfortunate pattern of DeGrom’s career, DeGrom shutdown the Yankees lineup allowing just one run over seven innings, but received no run support in return which resulted in him getting the loss. The Mets were so impressed in what was supposed to be a one and done stint in the majors, and therefore kept DeGrom in the rotation for the rest of the season. His excellent pitching continued, pitching to a 2.69 ERA with 144 strikeouts that season, good enough to win him Rookie Of the Year. He hasn't looked back since.

He followed up his outstanding rookie season with an even better sophomore season in 2015, making the All Star team and finishing seventh in the Cy Young voting, pitching to a 2.54 ERA and claiming his first 200 strikeout campaign. He backed up his stellar regular season in October with excellent performances against the Dodgers and Cubs in the NLDS and NLCS, overall pitching to a 2.88 ERA that postseason. Unfortunately, at the time of this writing, that has been his only taste of the postseason.

After an overwhelmingly great start to his career, partially due to injuries, he took a slight step back in 2016 despite still putting up strong numbers. He posted a 3.04 ERA in 24 starts, and was handed what would be his only losing season of his career with a 7-8 record. In what was the worst season of his career, he still posted a 132 ERA+ (32% above the league average). Most likely due to injuries, that became the only season (as of now) since his Rookie Year in which he did not finish in at least the top 8 in Cy Young Voting. He came back stronger in 2017 posting then career highs in Strikeouts (239), Wins (15) and K/9 (10.7), all while having the worst single season ERA of his career (3.53). That was good enough to land him eighth in Cy Young voting and seemingly put him back on the great trajectory he started on.

Entering the 2018 season, DeGroms career ERA sat at 2.98, good for eighth best in baseball over the four years of his career. Whether he was on a Hall of Fame path could be debated, but he was undoubtedly having an excellent career. To this day I haven't heard an explanation that makes sense to me, but something seemed to have changed entering that 2018 season and no, I'm not talking about his hair. If I had to sum it up, I would propose the change actually happened in midseason of 2017: Jacob had a habit throughout the early seasons of his career of either pitching fantastically, or getting lit up. No in between. After one particular occurrence of getting lit up by the Rangers in mid season 2017, Mets Manager Terry Collins sat in the dugout talking to Jacob for the better part of an inning. All though I don't know what he said, it seemed to have resonated with Jake, and for the remainder of that season, carrying into the rest of his career, he was different.

From the very first start of 2018, DeGrom was on another level. He went the entire season without allowing more than three runs in a start which culminated in a MLB leading 1.70 ERA, his first Cy Young award and fifth place in the MVP voting. This wasn't a fluke; he followed up with another Cy Young award the following season, finishing with a 2.43 ERA, good for second in the league, along with a league leading 255 strikeouts. It wasn’t much different for DeGrom in 2020 either, despite only finishing third in Cy Young voting, being beaten out by Trevor Bauer. It was his third consecutive season finishing with an ERA under 2.50, the first pitcher to do that since Kershaw. DeGrom entered this season at 32 years old, soon to be 33 this June. For most pitchers, this would be a declining phase in their career in which they tend to lose velocity and rely more on there secondary pitches. DeGrom isn’t most pitchers. His fastball velocity, which has increased each of the last five seasons, is at an all time high. Averaging over 99 miles per hour on his fastball this season, along with throwing it more than ever (60% of the time), DeGrom is on a historically dominant start. Just to name a few of his accomplishments from the first four starts of this season alone:

• He struck out nine consecutive batters, tied for second most all time
• He set an MLB record with 50 strikeouts in his first five starts
• He became just the third pitcher ever to strikeout 14+ batters in three consecutive starts.

As of now, he is the MVP.

With another Cy Young this season, DeGrom would virtually clinch his stop in Cooperstown, but his career excellence should earn him more than that. While even the greatest pitchers in the history of the game have declined towards the latter years of their career, DeGrom may very well be an exception. As a shortstop turned pitcher, DeGrom has not accumulated near the total amount of innings as others his age have, which should allow to maintain excellence for years to come. On another note, as of now, DeGrom ranked third all time(!) in ERA+ (153) just behind Pedro Martinez (154) and Clayton Kershaw (158).

DeGrom has done more than solidify his spot in Cooperstown. His historically dominant peak, along with a remarkably consistent career has put him in the conversation as one of the most dominant pitchers the game has ever seen; and there’s still more to come.