The New York Mets may be falling apart as a team overall, but at least their ace seems to be back on track…right?

After a year of domination during his 2018 National League Cy Young campaign, Jacob deGrom endured a rough start to 2019. Upon waking up on May 1st, the Mets’ ace owned a 37.7% strikeout rate and 8.8% walk rate through 26 innings, which was stellar. What wasn’t as stellar, though, was the 4.85 ERA he had compiled, along with a .257/.336/.465 triple slash opposing batters had put together.

As evidenced by his season-long stats at the moment (3.25 ERA and 2.8 fWAR in 97 innings), it seems as if deGrom has gotten himself back to normal. Taking a gander at his month-by-month breakdown would suggest as much, too. He’s tossed 71 frames since May 1st, which has led to a much more deGrom-like 2.66 ERA.

This is a wonderful thing — there’s no doubt about that. Although it’s clearly not enough on its own, the Mets certainly wouldn’t be a contender (or as ferocious of a contender) if deGrom wasn’t performing to the level he’s capable of. What’s incredibly frustrating, though — and I’m just talking about for us as fans and viewers, I’m sure it’s much worse for him — is that the rest of the team isn’t doing their job behind him, whether it’s the defense, the offense, the bullpen, or some combination of those three.

There’s a clear divide where this started happening again. From Opening Day through his May 17th start against the Miami Marlins where he allowed seven runs (six earned) on nine hits in five innings, deGrom owned a 3-5 record through nine total starts. His season-long ERA at that point was just a tick under 4.00 (3.98, to be exact), but he had been dealing with this unfamiliar feeling of inconsistent performance, so the losing record at least made sense.

But since then — a span of time that’s included 45 innings pitched and seven total starts — he’s posted just a 1-1 record. And that’s happened despite not allowing more than two earned runs in any of those appearances. DeGrom has also posted six different quality starts during this period and has struck out at least eight hitters on five separate occasions.

Imagine how frustrating it must be to post a 2.40 ERA with a 30.7% strikeout rate, 3.4% walk rate over 45 innings and come out the other side with just one win? If anyone knows what that feels like, it’s deGrom.

Let’s not forget that over his final 24 starts last season — all of which were quality starts — the right-hander posted a ridiculous 1.67 ERA with a 32.3% strikeout rate and 4.9% walk rate in 172.2 innings. He ended up with a 7-9 record during this period of time.

While there’s more to the Mets’ issues than when deGrom takes the mound, it certainly feels like a microcosm of what needs to be fixed. Even with all the roster turnover that happened this past winter with Brodie Van Wagenen taking control as the general manager, New York is just about halfway through 2019 and appears to mostly have the same problems as last year.

Is there a way to fix the lack of love deGrom seems to be getting every five days? Outside of overhauling the roster’s biggest weaknesses, not really. It’s not like baseball is the kind of game where players can be programmed to play better on some days instead of others. However, one would imagine that a squad would play with a highest sense of urgency when their ace is on the mound because there’s a much better opportunity to win once the late innings roll around. That’s not the case here, though.

For the time being, we can just be thankful that deGrom’s tough March/April was a blip on the radar and he’s back to being his mostly consistent (and dominant) self. And we can only hope that the rest of the roster rewards him a with either some runs, good defense, or the ability to protect some leads along the way. At least, more than they have recently.