How Will The Pandemic Affect Jacob Degrom’s Remaining Prime Years?

On Monday, Anthony DiComo of MLB.com spoke with reigning two-time Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom about how he’s been preparing during the hiatus, and what the lost time might mean for his remaining career. deGrom turns 32 this June, and is coming off of arguably two of the greatest pitching seasons in recent memory.

When you consider that he was a relatively late-bloomer (at 26 years old) breaking into the majors, the possibility of a lost or shortened season could impact deGrom’s future into Cooperstown. Jake commented on making the most of his prime going forward saying: “You’re only good for so long, and I felt really good this spring, so that definitely crossed my mind. I guess now, I’ve just got try to stay good for a few more years.”

In what is now a six year career amassing a dominant 2.62 ERA with 1,255 strikeouts in 1,101 2/3 innings, it would be unwise to think deGrom won’t continue to terrorize hitters at the highest level for years to come. Not only does deGrom have some of the most flawless pitching mechanics in baseball, he possesses a one of the games highest pitching IQ’s and can confidently navigate through batters without his “A” stuff.

When you take those factors into account along with the recent success of pitchers into their late 30’s like Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander, the sky is certainly still the limit for Jake well beyond the ’20 season.

Speaking of 2020, how is Jake staying in baseball shape for this year with so much uncertainty you might ask? As of right now, deGrom’s “stopped throwing bullpen sessions, but he plans to begin ramping things back up this week with a 25-pitch session off the mound.”

One regiment which hasn’t changed during this sudo offseason has been long tossing daily with his dad, Tony. Besides throwing, deGrom is making an extreme effort to keep his body in game shape with distance bike riding and resistance band training for whenever the season begins.“I feel like I could ramp it up pretty quick right now,” he said…lets hope that he gets the chance to.

deGrom also reflected that baseball is far from the most important thing right now. “Ah man, I really wish we were playing,” but he acknowledged,”at the same time, it’s hard to even think that way because people are losing their lives over this. The whole situation, nobody wants to be in this. We’re not able to play the game, but there are more important things.”

There certainly are more important things than baseball right now, but if deGrom can adjust to this new normal and make the best of it, then so can we. All we can hope is that he’ll be pitching off of a major mound instead of his back yard sometime in the near future.