You Aren't Going To Believe This, But Jacob DeGrom Pitched Great And The Mets Lost Anyway

Whenever Jacob deGrom takes the hill for the Mets, there’s a certain level of excellence that you can expect to see from the spindly 30-year-old. He has, after all, only given up more than three earned runs in a start once this season. That means that whenever deGrom is pitching, all the Mets have to do is score a few runs in order to get themselves a win. That hasn’t happened very much.

On Monday, against the NL-worst San Diego Padres, the NL’s second-worst Mets put up only two runs, and played some shaky defense to boot in a 3-2 loss. Errors by Jose Bautista and Amed Rosario—as well the customary subpar defense from the irreversibly washed Jose Reyes—contributed mightily to the three runs, two earned, that deGrom would give up over eight innings in a losing effort.

DeGrom is now 5-5 with an MLB-leading ERA of 1.71. (For context, the man with the second-lowest ERA in the league, Chris Sale at 2.13, is closer to eighth place, Gerrit Cole at 2.52, than he is to deGrom in first.) And yet, the Mets, the sadsacks that they are, systematically haven’t been able to muster enough run support or defense to get out of their own way and give the best pitcher in the NL more than a .500 record in late July. Just check out these batshit stats:

Pitcher wins don’t matter anymore to Cy Young voters—the ones who have watched a baseball game in the 21st century, at least—so it’s likely that, should he continue this rate of production, deGrom will still coast to the NL Cy Young Award. But, good God, I don’t know how he puts up with all of what the Mets have to offer—on the field and off it.

One of the three stooges that currently run the team, assistant GM John Ricco, said recently that the Mets have been in “dialogue with some teams” regarding potential trade destinations for deGrom. At this point, the most support the Mets may be able to offer deGrom is a willingness to get him the hell out of New York.