WFAN legend Joe Benigno sounds done with Jacob deGrom

Joe Benigno sailed off into retirement in late 2020 but couldn’t stay away from the spotlight for too long. The WFAN legend is podcasting, back to hosting, and on Monday made an appearance on Tiki and Tierney to talk some New York Mets among other things.

The topic of Jacob deGrom came up and Joe B was feeling the pain. After his latest start on Saturday where he looked more human than usual, Benigno sounds ready to move on from deGrom entirely.

Is Joe Benigno rushing to judgment on Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom?

If you’ve followed Benigno’s radio career, you’ll know he was never overly fond of deGrom like his former and now sometimes occasional partner Evan Roberts has been. As a sports talk host in New York, he’s no stranger to hot takes, overreactions, or strong opinions. Benigno is fed up with deGrom and already at a loss of faith with him.

From the short rant, the issue seems to be deGrom’s recent injury history. Missing the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022 set the Mets back—far more so last year than this. While many pitchers do suffer injuries, deGrom’s have been frustrating.

Fortunately, as of now, there hasn’t been any indication that deGrom is making excuses for his recent lackluster appearance. It is late September, after all. He might need to lose a limb to accept a stint on the IL.

Benigno’s rush to already move on from deGrom is reactionary. He has a huge start coming up later this week to finish off his regular season against the Atlanta Braves. Then, in the playoffs, deGrom will have a chance to completely erase those doubts.

Through 10 starts, deGrom is now 5-3 with a 2.93 ERA. He’s striking out batters at a rate of 14 per 9 and has an unbelievable 0.73 WHIP.

deGrom’s free agency case is definitely going to be a huge major story for the Mets and everyone else. If the team can win a championship this year and finally put an end to at least some of Benigno’s pain, maybe moving on will be easier.

It’s a wait-and-see approach with deGrom at the moment. He’s going to command high money regardless of how things end. Having a “what have ya done for us lately” mentality is what fans tend to do. Whether you agree or not with what Benigno has to say, it’s refreshing to have him back. He actually seems like he’s paying attention to the games. That one year or so of retirement did him some good.