MLB Cy Young Power Rankings: We’re all living in Justin Verlander’s world

4. Jacob deGrom, RHP for the New York Mets

4-0, 1.52 ERA, 1.01 WHIP, 32.8 strikeout rate, 2.5 WAR

I mentioned in the Kluber portion that wins and losses for a pitcher really aren’t the best measure. We need look no further than Jacob deGrom to prove that point. The Mets bullpen owes him some really nice dinners, because they have repeatedly blown leads that deGrom had when he left the game. He has been virtually unhittable when he’s been pitching this year and the Mets would be in a far worse spot without him. When a pitcher can go from 96 to 89 with control, it’s going to make life hard on hitters.

That’s kind of the nice thing about debating Cy Young award candidates. Even though the Mets aren’t a good team and likely won’t be a good team at the end of the year, that won’t take away from deGrom’s brilliance. It’s not his fault the Mets are a mediocre baseball team and the record doesn’t weigh as heavily as it would for an MVP candidate. Many(including myself) had pegged teammate Noah Syndergaard as the best pitcher on the Mets staff. That hasn’t been the case this season.

deGrom has dodged a bullet once already this season when it appeared he could have suffered a major arm injury. Fortunately for everyone involved, it turned out to be a simple hyper-extension of his elbow and he’s come back extremely strong since then. He hasn’t had the easiest road to his stats either. Out of his 11 starts, deGrom has faced the Atlanta Braves three times and the Nationals twice. The Braves are fourth in runs and the Nationals just miss out on the top 10 by five runs. That’s no easy road to walk. Taking out the two starts when he had his arm trouble, deGrom has only missed out on pitching six innings once. As of now, he’s the runner up in the National League Cy Young race.