Jacob deGrom never gave the Mets a chance in free agency

By Rylie Smith | Dec 3, 2022

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - OCTOBER 08: (NEW YORK DAILIES OUT) Jacob deGrom #48 of the New York Mets in action against the San Diego Padres during game two of the NL Wild Card Series at Citi Field on October 08, 2022 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. The Mets defeated the Padres 7-3. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images) /

The New York Mets were trying to fight hard to keep their ace Jacob deGrom, but he didn’t give them a chance before signing with the Texas Rangers.

The New York Mets have officially lost Jacob deGrom in free agency, and things didn’t go nearly as planned.

While there was always speculation that deGrom would end up with the Rangers, it seems to be exactly where deGrom wanted to be as there was reportedly no bidding war, nor were they given a chance at one.

Mets' offer to deGrom was 3 years in $120M range. Sides were in contact Thursday, but no back-and-forth Friday (today). So there was no "if you can top this" bidding. The Mets got word from deGrom camp not that much before the world found out that he was going to the Rangers.
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) December 3, 2022

The Mets made an initial offer to deGrom that he turned down, and the Rangers went to sign him to a massive five-year deal worth $185 million. Many consider this risky as he’s 34 years old and has been faced with a few injuries, but he’s proven to be a solid player through it all, which could work well for Texas.

Regardless, the Rangers desperately needed to upgrade their rotation, and having deGrom in it is almost guaranteed to help bring it on the upswing.

Jacob deGrom is expected to be a huge help in the Rangers’ rotation

The Rangers certainly aren’t the worst team in the league, but they don’t usually look like contenders as there is a lot of room for improvement. Their rotation, in particular, could be significantly enhanced by someone like deGrom.

Over the 2022 regular season, among all teams in the league, the Rangers had the ninth-worst ERA (4.22), 14th-worst opponent batting average (.247) and seventh-worst WHIP (1.34).

Meanwhile, deGrom had an immediate impactful start to his season, despite being out of games for slightly over a year. This season, he produced an ERA of 3.08, batting average against of .175 and WHIP of 0.75. This wasn’t a case of fluke luck, either. His worst WHIP since 2017 was 0.97, and his worst BAA since then was .207. Somehow, his worst ERA was this season’s mark.

He has true talent, and while he is getting older and that could potentially decrease, he still seems to be a promising player and the Rangers don’t have much to miss out on considering he holds the most potential among all of their starting pitchers.

It’s unfortunate that the Mets didn’t get a shot at bidding for him, but it’s exciting for the Rangers to have such a dominant pitcher join their team.

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