Mets’ Jacob deGrom steals first career base

Yu Darvish made his highly anticipated debut for the Dodgers on Friday, but Jacob deGrom stole the headlines.

Cameron Maybin of the Los Angeles Angels is currently on a rehab assignment and has 25 stolen bases. The New York Mets have 25 as a team. Friday, Yu Darvish toed the rubber, already having given up 16 stolen bases on the season.

So it’s only fitting that Jacob deGrom be the guy to not only get his first career stolen base, but push the Mets ahead of Maybin in the stolen base category.

deGrom is the first Mets pitcher to swipe a bag since Oliver Perez did it back in 2008.

deGrom is not your average pitcher, because he can hit: his season average sits at a comfy .231. He also hit his first career home run on June 18 off Joe Ross of the Washington Nationals. If you may recall, deGrom used to be a shortstop at Stetson University until he blew out his arm and made the change to pitcher.

deGrom has been on a roll lately on the mound. He had a month of June that was something that you’d only see in video games. After giving up eight runs in four innings on June 6, deGrom went four straight starts with at least seven innings and one or fewer earned runs.

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July was more of the same. He gave up four solo home runs on July 7 against the Cardinals, but after that he had four straight starts giving up two or fewer runs.

There was some talk of the Mets actually entertaining the idea of trading deGrom at the deadline. We know deGrom alone could bring a plethora of elite prospects, but with Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz around, there’s no reason to break that trio up.

The countdown till deGrom’s next stolen base is on.