Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

Jacob deGrom opened up for the first time since his injury in July to MLB.com reporter Anthony DiComo. deGrom shared his feelings on the cause of his injury and the effects it had on him and the team as a whole.

deGrom was shut down in July but no one thought his injury would prevent him from pitching the rest of the season. Frustrations mounted from everybody with the unsure status of his arm and UCL. Was it torn, was it not? Nobody really had an answer.

“You just see how it affects everybody else,” deGrom told DiComo in a telephone interview last week. “It’s like, ‘Man, I should be out there playing. I should be out there taking the ball every fifth day.’ So it’s just frustrating. I was definitely frustrated. It was one of those things that I just couldn’t get rid of it.”

Before his injury deGrom pitched at a level rarely seen since Bob Gibson. He led the majors with a 1.08 ERA over 92 innings.

“I have to take a lot of responsibility for [the Mets] falling short,” deGrom said. “I’m not running out there every fifth day, and I feel like I can help the team win. So going down and not being able to go out there and pitch, it’s definitely a letdown for me. But it’s also a letdown for the team. So I do take a lot of responsibility for that.”

The Mets’ second-half collapse has been well documented. After spending over 100 days in first place the Mets wouldn’t even sniff the playoffs. Maybe with deGrom every five days the Mets could have found a way to turn things around.
Maybe the most eye-opening aspect is deGrom’s belief that his injury was worsened by the way he was positioned in the MRI machine in Pittsburgh.
Although the MRI revealed nothing more than a mild forearm strain, deGrom’s arm discomfort spread from his forearm to elbow in the ensuing days. He believes now that the positioning of his arm in that MRI tube — he laid on his stomach with his elbow raised above him for nearly an hour — exacerbated the issue.
deGrom would later be cleared by team physician Dr. David Altchek and multiple third-party orthopedists to confirm he didn’t have any tear in his arm.
deGrom says if the Mets were in playoff contention and made it he would have definitely pitched. Already he’s pushed his fastball up to 98 mph without feeling anything abnormal and began his usual offseason routine on Monday.

“In this game, the main goal is to stay healthy, and I wasn’t able to do that this year,” deGrom said. “I’ll compete as long as I can. You never know how long you can play this game, [so] enjoy it and go out there and just give it your best while you’re able to. Nobody knows. Maybe I’ll play till I’m 40. Maybe I’ll play ’till I’m 50. Who knows?”

Well if Jake wants to pitch until 50 then he’ll need some advice from Nolan Ryan and have to ask R.A. Dickey for his knuckleball.
As for now, deGrom has every plan to return healthy in 2022 and prove he can make 30 starts in a season.