Jacob deGrom is deBest, but can he stay healthy?

Jacob deGrom is incredible, that’s nothing new. Friday night, the best pitcher on the planet had his third game this season with double-digit strikeouts and no walks, lowering his ERA to 0.56 with six innings of one-hit ball against the Padres.

deGrom, who has allowed opponents to hit .121 against him this season, also raised his own batting average to .400 with a two-RBI single that only ensured he’d wind up with the win in the 3-2 Mets triumph.

It also means that deGrom now has driven in five runs this year, while only allowing four earned runs in his 10 starts.

The MVP chatter is real.

So, what can’t deGrom do? Settle a key issue about the rather common injury that knocked him out of the game after those six brilliant innings. It’s a swelling of the right flexor tendon, which, according to the Florida Orthopedic Institute, “can make it difficult to bend your thumb or fingers.” While Ortho Illinois concurs, noting that treatment can range from ice and gentle stretching to surgery, the two specialist outlets disagree about an important point.

Florida Orthopedic Institute calls this condition “tendonitis.” Ortho Illinois calls it “tendinitis.” Associated Press style is historically “tendinitis,” but the wire service’s initial story on deGrom called it “ tendonitis.”

SNY’s intrepid reporter Steve Gelbs? He reported tendinitis. SNY itself? Tendonitis.

For whatever it’s worth, Merriam-Webster lists “tendinitis” as the preferred spelling, with “tendonitis” as a variant.

However you spell it, Mets fans would just as soon never read the word again. As you can imagine, the PANIC and NONONONONONONO buttons, commonly worn out for Amazin’ backers already, were smashed in full effect last night at word of deGrom leaving the game: