A group of Cy Young Award winners have singed long-term deals with their respective teams this week.
And no, Jacob deGrom is not among that group.
With less than a week to go before opening day, and deGrom’s self-imposed deadline to strike a deal with the Mets looming, there is no word on whether deGrom and the Mets are any closer to a long-term extension. And if you are a Mets fan, you have to be frustrated, confused, and maybe even angry.
While deGrom’s contract status twists in the wind, the Tampa Bay Rays finalized a five-year $50 million deal with their Cy Young award winner, Blake Snell.
Granted Snell is younger than deGrom; he’s only 26 compared to deGrom’s 30. And Snell won 21 games and pitched to a 1.89 ERA against American League lineups, one could argue that deGrom’s Cy Young season last year was more impressive.
While he went only 10-9 on the win-loss record, deGrom consistently pitched at the top of his game inspite of the fact he got little to no run support in his starts. In 21 of his 33 starts, the Mets scored three runs or less for deGrom, and somehow the right-hander never waivered, allowing no more than three runs in any of those outings. A lot of the losing came as a result of not only a poor offensive team, but a leaky Met bullpen as well.
Put deGrom’s 2018 season with last year’s Red Sox or Yankees, and he probably would have won 20-plus games.
In addition, deGrom has easily been the Mets most consistent pitcher over the last four seasons.
In 2017, a year removed from Tommy John’s Surgery, deGrom won 15 games, while leading the Mets in strikeouts with 239 and a sparkling WHIP of 1.18.
Two years earlier, in 2015, deGrom notched his first All Star bid, while posting a record of 14-8, an ERA of 2.70, and WHIP of 0.97. His postseason in 2015 wasn’t bad either, notching three victories, two of which came in dominant efforts against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the Division Series that year.
Compared to Chris Sale and Justin Verlander, two of deGrom’s peers who were just paid handsomely by the Red Sox and Astros, respectively, the Mets ace is right up there with some of the best in baseball over the last four seasons.
And yet, all we hear is silence … for now … on a possible contract extension.
If the Mets were hoping to get deGrom on a team-friendly deal, they can forget it now, especially after Chris Sale signed a $145 million deal with the Red Sox.
Sale, who is also 30-years old, will make roughly $30 million a season in the first three years of the deal. By the time the deal ends, Sale will be 35-years old.
This is same Chris Sale who was a runner up for the Cy Young Award in 2017, and dealt with not one, but two stints on the Injury List last season, and was not himself in the postseason last year.
Meanwhile, the 36-year old Justin Verlander will make $66 million over the next years in Houston after agreeing to an extension.
So what’s the hold up? The Mets probably feel they are already paying deGrom handsomely as is. He is due to make $17 million this season, and has another year of arbitration left in 2020 where some have estimated he could make $20 million-plus.
The Mets don’t have to do a deal if they don’t want to, but it would only make sense to lock up their best pitcher right now on a four or five-year deal assuring they get the rest of deGrom’s prime years for the foreseeable future.
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