Mets Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom is King of New York

As many expected, New York Mets ace Jacob deGrom won the 2018 National League Cy Young Award. This week, he’s the King of New York.

Jacob deGrom capped off his dominant 2018 season by becoming the fourth New York Mets pitcher to win the Cy Young award. Not only did deGrom cement himself as the best player on the Mets, in 2018 deGrom arguably became the best player in New York.

As the season progressed we really did run out of words to describe deGrom’s’ 2018 season. The bottom line is it was historic and arguably one of the best seasons ever.

Although the lack of run support by the Amazins led to a poor win-loss record for deGrom it did not stop the BBWAA from almost giving deGrom the award unanimously.

deGrom became just the 11th pitcher to finish the year with an ERA below 1.70 in the last 100 years. He became just the 3rd pitcher to have an ERA as low as he did (1.70 ERA) with at least 30 starts and 210 innings pitched since 1969. The other two were Dwight Gooden (1.53 ERA, 1985) and Zack Greinke (1.66 ERA, 2015).

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To top it all off deGrom finished the year with two impressive streaks. He finished the season with an on-going 29 straight starts allowing 3 ER or fewer, which is tied for the longest streak since Jake Arrieta (2015-2016). He also ended the year with 24 straight quality starts which is the longest single-season streak in MLB history. deGrom’s quality start streak is the third longest overall in MLB history (Bob Gibson, 26 straight, 1967-1968).

Clearly, deGrom is the New York Mets top player as he outshined his fellow teammates over the past couple of years. But deGrom has pitched so well and consistent that it is not outrageous to call him the best player in New York.

Across town in the Bronx, Luis Severino is arguably the Yankees best pitcher and although deGrom has thrown 300 more innings than Severino, deGrom has him beat in career ERA, strikeouts, and WHIP. Every fifth day the New York Mets know they have a chance to win when deGrom takes the mound. It’s why even the Yankees were rumored to asking the Mets about possibly trading for the Cy Young.

The Yankees have a boatload of talented hitters and arguably their best is Aaron Judge. It’s hard to compare pitchers to hitters, with the obvious argument that stands out is that pitchers only take the mound every fifth day.

But the impact one has on a team cannot be denied. Take away Judge from the Yankees and they’ll still be able to survive as they did this season when Judge was on the disabled list. Take away deGrom from the Mets and believe it or not it could have been an even worse 2018 for the Amazins.

With Judge comes 30 plus homers but also the tons of strikeouts. Taking nothing away from the 2017 rookie of the year and possibly a future MVP, but I’ll take deGrom’s consistent quality starts that makes a team feel like they already won the game before it started. Most championship teams have a great pitcher that leads the way.

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2018 was the year of Jacob deGrom, the King of New York.