Mets ace and two-time All-Star Jacob deGrom, who also has MLB’s lowest ERA by more than half a run, sent out a message yesterday, through his agent, expressing his desire to remain a Met long-term, but only if they reciprocate that sentiment and pay him accordingly. This, courtesy of Ken Rosenthal, lays out deGrom’s demands:
The guy is 30 years old, but it’s insane to consider that the Mets haven’t already been making a strong push to sign him. He has a 6.0 WAR, the highest by a pitcher, according to Baseball Reference’s estimations, and has allowed three or fewer earned runs in his last 16 consecutive starts.
The whole point of having money in baseball is to spend it on players like deGrom, and the fact that the Mets are apparently not eager to do so speaks to the fact that the Wilpons’s supreme oafishness is still weighing down the franchise. The Mets are in real danger of screwing this up, probably by lowballing deGrom and antagonizing him to the point that a potential trade becomes more of a demand than a suggestion.
The craziest thing about this situation is that deGrom is even interested in remaining a Met at all. No pitcher in baseball has been rewarded less for his efforts that deGrom has this season. He’s incurred 10 no-decisions and only has five wins despite owning a 1.68 ERA. He is by far the best pitcher in the league right now, and it has mattered not at all to the Mets’ win-loss record.
Here is a star pitcher who has been systematically hosed by the Mets’ offense, management, and ownership, and he still wants to be a Met. He’s actively saying, in public, that the hell he’s experienced these last two seasons has not done enough to break his spirit, like so many Met stars before him. He’s saying that wants to stay here and continue to lose games in which he gives up one run over eight innings. The Mets should just give him his damn money and be thankful for their good fortune.