Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
Although Jacob deGrom was having a historic season on the mound before his year was cut short due to injury in July, he was also rather productive at the plate. That production — despite only accruing 33 plate appearances — has been rewarded by being named a Silver Slugger finalist at his position.
In this small sample size, deGrom slashed .364/.364/.394 with one double, along with tying a single-season career-high mark with six RBI. Putting his production in perspective, let’s look at it this way. In his 33 trips to the plate during the 2021 campaign, deGrom collected 12 base hits. In 92 innings on the mound (324 total batters faced), he only allowed 40 base hits. Left-handed hitters slashed .128/.167/.275 off him, while right-handed hitters slashed .130/.155/.211.
DeGrom is one of four finalists in the National League, which also includes Germán Márquez of the Colorado Rockies, Max Fried of the Atlanta Braves, and Madison Bumgarner of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
I’m going to venture a guess and say deGrom won’t be taking home the honors simply because of his lack of playing time this year. But still, getting recognition at all given his situation is amazing. It shows just how effective he was with the bat in his hands. Plus, deGrom was doing this during a time when the Mets’ offense was struggling badly — not only was he getting base hits, but it felt at times that he was New York’s best hitter.
For a squad that underwhelmed at the dish overall this season, the only other hitters who remotely had a chance at getting named a finalist were Brandon Nimmo and Pete Alonso. Realistically, Alonso was the only other hope the Mets had of having a Silver Slugger finalist since Nimmo also missed significant time this season.
