NY Mets: Building the perfect yet realistic starting rotation for 2021

Jacob deGrom

You all knew he would be here. The best pitcher in baseball will be back and will be looking to claim his Cy Young Award trophy back after finishing in third place in the voting this season. deGrom came out on Opening Day hitting 100 consistently. We saw that all year. We even saw him hit 102.2 miles per hour on his fastball. He averaged 98.6 mph on his fastball. deGrom is just getting better and at age 32 I expect nothing less.

deGrom went 4-2 with a 2.38 ERA in 12 starts striking out a league-leading 104 batters in 68 innings pitched. He had an absurd 13.8 K/9 shattering his career-high of 11.3 in 2019. At times, deGrom appeared even more dominant than he was in his two Cy Young seasons. It’s truly a blessing to have this guy on my favorite team and to have him locked up for another three seasons at least.

It’s crazy to say that my expectations are Cy Young or bust from deGrom, but those are my expectations. Every fifth day I expect him to pitch seven innings of one-run baseball. Most of the time he meets or exceeds my lofty expectations. Hopefully in 2021 deGrom will finally get the run support he deserves.

deGrom never allowed more than three earned runs, and the one time he allowed four runs three of them were unearned. He had two 14 strikeout games, allowed one earned run or fewer in half of his starts, I truly can go on and on about his greatness. Let’s get that third Cy Young Award, Jacob.