Mets: Jacob deGrom eyes World Series in 2018

Like most Mets fans in September, Jacob deGrom is already laying out his big plans for 2018

DeGrom set new career highs this year despite the Mets car fire of a season. On Sunday he reached 200 innings and 31 starts. Though the Mets would end up losing the game, deGrom still struck out an impressive, 11 batters. He’s been one of the only things that seem to have gone right for the Mets this season. DeGrom even went on a personal 8-game win streak in the middle of the summer.

Well what does he think about his new milestone this season? “That’s something I wanted to get to to know what it’s like to pitch that many innings in a year,” deGrom told the media after the 3-2 loss to the Nationals at Citi Field.

He’s not just setting his sights on personal goals, however. Like Harvey, Syndergaard and Matz, deGrom got a taste of the World Series in 2015, and he wants to go back.

“We’ve got a plan to hopefully go to the World Series next year.”

This is exactly the kind of attitude the Mets need going into the Spring. It reminds me of when Terry Collins started off the 2015 season with “We’re going to win 90 games.” Which of course we know, not only happened but so much more.

It’s true, the way this team looks right now is about as far from a World Series contender as you can get, but with so many key pieces coming back next season healthier, and the Mets have some money to play with this offseason, the goal should be to get back to World Series and win it next year.

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It’s easy to be pessimistic about the future when so many things go wrong. It’s easy because that way, you don’t have the baseball gods break your heart. Being optimistic about 2018 is going to feel that much more satisfying if the Amazins’  can make it happen. That’s the best part of a new season, it’s all a clean slate.