In the past few days, the New York Mets have seen pitcher Jacob deGrom leave for Texas. He took advantage of his rights as a free agent to hit the jackpot ($185 million over five years… at least) elsewhere.
The club’s management handled it with great class, saying it was his right and wishing him good luck, but soon Justin Verlander was lured into town on a two-year, $86.6 million deal. – at least.
Instead of pitching with Jacob deGrom like in 2021, Max Scherzer will do like he did in the Tigers days and he’ll share the top of the rotation with Justin Verlander.
But for the Mets, which is better?
Both pitchers are excellent and are part of the elite of major league baseball. Justin Verlander just won another Cy Young and the healthy Jacob deGrom has the potential to win some as well.
But I feel, despite everything, that deGrom was a better fit for the Mets.
Yes, I know he gets injured a lot, but when he’s healthy he’s proven to be the best pitcher in major league baseball. He is also younger than Verlander.
He also did well when called upon to pitch in the playoffs, even though the sample size is small.
That being said, he chose to leave and he has the right to do so. And let’s say that in Verlander, the Mets don’t exactly get a stalk of celery.
That said, the playoffs are where the Mets need to go to the next level, and in the playoffs, Verlander isn’t perfect. At his age, sometimes the body is tired at the end of the campaign.
Look at Scherzer in the playoffs this year: it can happen that a guy flinches.
But I repeat: the Mets are absolutely not badly taken with Verlander, a guy who wanted to pitch in New York. It will be excellent and, moreover, it will challenger Scherzer.
After all, the former Nationals is a bulldog and he seemed to have lost some of his rage in 2022 claiming he was #2 behind deGrom.
I’m not saying that’s a bad thing since it was perfect to avoid controversy, but it will be nice to see fighting to be king of the mountain. And even to be the king of New York.
I really believe the Mets are going to have two successful pitchers at the top of the rotation. If health is there, they will be great.
But I also have a feeling that sometimes fans will look to Texas and be nostalgic for the days when the best pitcher in the Majors, younger than the Mets’ two old wolves, was pitching in Queens.
