Baseball|In Huge Blow to Mets, Jacob deGrom Signs With Texas Rangers
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/02/sports/baseball/jacob-degrom-texas-rangers.html
DeGrom, a two-time winner of the Cy Young Award, received an enormous commitment despite his recent injuries.
Great pitching has long been a measure of distinction for the Mets, a team that has developed some of the best pitchers in the game — and then lost them.
From Tom Seaver and Nolan Ryan to Dwight Gooden and David Cone, Jacob deGrom is now part of that dubious list.
In the biggest splash of the off-season so far, deGrom signed a five-year, $185 million deal with the Texas Rangers on Friday, leaving the only club he had ever played for, in a city that never quite seemed to fit him. But he always shined in New York, even if the players surrounding him were sometimes unable to match his brilliance.
He won two National League Cy Young Awards for the Mets and was named the N.L.’s Rookie of the Year in 2014, establishing himself as one of the premier pitchers of his generation. Now he will join a Rangers team that is trying hard to spend its way into contention.
“We are thrilled that Jacob deGrom has decided to become a Texas Ranger,” Chris Young, the general manager of the Rangers, said in a statement released by the team. “Over a number of seasons, Jacob has been a standout Major League pitcher, and he gives us a dominant performer at the top of our rotation. One of our primary goals this off-season is to strengthen our starting pitching, and we are adding one of the best.”
The deal includes an option for a sixth year that could switch from a team option to a player option depending on whether he meets certain thresholds.
The Mets, who still have Max Scherzer as the team’s ace, could turn to other options for a second frontline starter, like the veterans Justin Verlander or Carlos Rodón, both of whom are free agents.
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While hoping to retain their homegrown ace, the Mets were willing to go to three years for deGrom, 34, but were wary of extending beyond that because of his history with injuries. He was midway through a spectacular 2021 season when a forearm injury shut him down and then he missed the first half of 2022 with a stress reaction injury in his right shoulder blade. All told, he was out for a little more than a year. He made only 26 starts over two seasons.
But when he was on the mound, deGrom was virtually unparalleled. He went 82-57 in nine years with the Mets, a record that could have been higher had it not been for the team’s uncanny lack of offensive support when deGrom pitched. But his career 2.52 earned run average in 209 starts is the fourth lowest for any pitcher with at least 200 starts in the expansion era, behind only the great Dodgers aces, Sandy Koufax (2.19) and Clayton Kershaw (2.48). His 43.8 career wins above replacement is fourth best on the Mets list.
A former college shortstop who loved to hit, deGrom was selected by the Mets in the ninth round of the 2010 draft when Omar Minaya was the team’s general manager. It was an inspired choice as deGrom evolved into arguably the second-best pitcher the Mets ever had, after Seaver. He quickly flourished after four years in the minors, one of which (2011) was lost when he had Tommy John surgery.
After he won the Rookie of the Year Award and helped the Mets to the 2015 World Series, deGrom won the Cy Young Award in 2018 and 2019 and led the league in strikeouts twice. The Mets had hoped that pairing deGrom and Max Scherzer at the front of their rotation could lead the team to its first World Series title since 1986. But a 101-win season ended in frustration when the team was eliminated in the wild-card round of the playoffs. DeGrom won his one start, in Game 2 against the Padres.
With deGrom and the Mets, 2021 will remain an extreme case of what might have been. He had a career-best 1.08 E.R.A. before being shut down for the season after 15 starts. He was effective once he was able to return in the second half of the 2022 season, striking out 14.3 batters per nine innings, but his results were mixed, by his standards, with a 5-4 record and a 3.08 E.R.A.
In spring training, when deGrom said he would play out his contract and test free agency, it raised the possibility that he might leave New York. Raised in DeLeon Springs, Fla., deGrom was an avid Atlanta Braves fan and some speculated that he might sign there. Instead, it was the Rangers.
In Texas he will be asked to stabilize the pitching for a team that spent lavishly last off-season, committing $500 million to the infielders Corey Seager and Marcus Semien, but finished 68-94 thanks in large part to the team’s starters combining for a 4.63 E.R.A.
Benjamin Hoffman and Scott Miller contributed reporting.
