Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
Mets ace Jacob deGrom will make a rehab start for the Low-A St. Lucie Mets Sunday, Buck Showalter said Saturday.
The dominant right-hander hasn’t pitched this year due to a stress reaction in his right shoulder. He’s been slowly ramping things up recently, and now he’s finally to the point where he will make a rehab start.
The news comes shortly after Max Scherzer finished his rehab stint with the Double-A Binghamton Rumble Ponies, where he made two starts and is expected to return to the Mets on Tuesday.
Now, the Mets will have two major rotation developments in the span of just a few days with deGrom making this rehab start. He’ll likely be on a pitch count, and it’s unclear how many rehab starts he’ll need to get back to the Mets. But it’s a giant step in the right direction regardless.
The Mets are in first place in the NL East, even though deGrom hasn’t pitched at all and Scherzer has missed a chunk of time.
DeGrom, 34, posted an absurd 1.08 ERA in 15 starts last year before going down with another injury. He still came in ninth in Cy Young voting despite missing over half the season. His best year was 2018, when he put up a 1.70 ERA in 32 starts and won his first Cy Young award. He came in fifth in MVP voting.
He followed that up with another Cy Young campaign in 2019, posting a 2.43 ERA in 32 more starts. He led the league in strikeouts that year with 255.
For his career, which begun in 2014, deGrom has compiled a 2.50 ERA in 198 starts, spanning 1,261 2/3 innings. His career WHIP is just barely over 1.00, sitting at 1.011. He’s struck out 10.7 batters per nine innings while walking 2.1 and allowing 0.8 homers per nine. He’s thrown four complete games, including two shutouts — one of which came last year.
With Scherzer returning and deGrom following shortly behind him, things are looking up for this Mets rotation.
He’s back.
