The NY Mets injury that tanked an entire season even though it shouldn't have

At the end of the day on July 7, 2021, the New York Mets were 46-38 with a 4.5 game lead over the Washington Nationals. The eventual World Series-winning Atlanta Braves were 42-44, unwilling to bow out from the fight. They’d end up 88-73 and a division title. The Mets were at 77-85 when it all came to an end.

What went wrong? It’s easy. In the second-half of a scheduled 7-inning doubleheader at Citi Field, Jacob deGrom took the hill for what would end up as the final time that season.

Officially placed on the IL on July 18 just after the All-Star Break, the forearm tightness was alarming but not definitive proof he’d be gone. Through 15 starts that season, deGrom was 11-4 with a 1.08 ERA. The Cy Young was calling his name. So was a Mets playoff appearance for the first time since 2016.

How bad did things get for the Mets after losing Jacob deGrom in 2021?

If you remember the 2021 season well, which I seem to because of how starved I was for baseball after barely anything in 2020, you’ll recall how .500-ish the Mets played throughout. An incredible 17-9 May pushed them to the top of the division. They played .500 baseball in June with a 15-15 record. July was one game over at 14-13.

The team began slipping through the cracks in August with a 9-19 record. At 11-16 in September, they gave barely a fight in those final days.

deGrom’s injury timed up all too well with the second-half which makes things a little easier to look back at. Pete Alonso played well, hitting 20 home runs and batting .275. The team suffered a multitude of injuries early on and in spite of regular action from guys like Billy McKinney, Cameron Maybin, and more in the outfield, they yielded better results.

As the case too often tends to be, a struggling pitching staff helped doom the Mets. The only trade addition they made to improve the rotation was Rich Hill. At 1-4 with a 3.84 ERA, it didn’t make up for what they were missing when deGrom went down. Taijuan Walker had a 7.13 ERA. Carlos Carrasco debuted in July and 6.04 ERA in his introduction to New York. Tylor Megill shared the team-lead with 14 second-half starts. After some hype, he had only a 4.77 ERA.

The bullpen was more mediocre than good, several pitchers with ERAs in the high-3.00’s. Edwin Diaz had two stretches where three appearances in a row included a blown save and/or loss. The first of these occurred on July 11th.

The air was sucked out of the 2021 Mets upon deGrom’s departure. The oddity of how someone who plays only once every fifth day and how it can tank an entire year is unexplainable. The Mets did lose Francisco Lindor for significant time, but this was also the year where he wasn’t exceptional. Javier Baez, despite the controversy, was.

Psychologically, the 2021 Mets were a mess. It wasn’t all because they lost deGrom and yet the evidence seems to say it was.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow