New York Mets: Comparing Jacob deGrom to MLB’s Current Greats

New York Mets starter Jacob deGrom officially etched his name alongside all-time greats like Bob Gibson with his consecutive streak of quality starts. In honor of this accomplishment, let’s compare deGrom to baseball’s current greats.

On Tuesday, New York Mets starter Jacob deGrom‘s streak of consecutive quality starts (QS) was snapped at 27. Unless he goes on another unprecedented streak, deGrom will remain tied with all-time great Bob Gibson with the most consecutive quality starts ever.

Jacob deGrom’s streak began in May of 2018 and ended on Minnesota Twins catcher Mitch Garver‘s second HR of the game off deGrom. Per Fox Sports: MLB, “(Garver) joins Giancarlo Stanton and Mark Teixeira as the only three players to hit multiple HR in a game off deGrom.”

When he made his Mets debut in 2014 and then when he helped take the team to the World Series in 2015, many viewed him to be somewhat of a third wheel to Matt Harvey and Noah Syndergaard. 5-years later, however, deGrom is not only the face of the staff, but he’s also arguably the best pitcher in baseball.

This is not only evidenced by his record-tying streak of consecutive quality starts, but it is also demonstrated by this neat observation via @MLBStats on Twitter:

This got me wondering, where does deGrom stand among baseball’s best pitchers?

In order to identify those pitchers, I searched through ALL MLB starters since 2014, the year deGrom made his big league debut and sorted them by fWAR. The results were clear, yet somewhat predictable.

First up?

Max Scherzer

Upon becoming a free agent after the 2014 season, many so-called experts warned teams about Max Scherzer. It was unusual to see a guy break out at the age of 28 and with five mediocre years under his belt no less. The Washington Nationals, however, decided to take a chance on Scherzer and boy has it paid off.

Since signing with the Nats, beginning in 2015, Scherzer has been the most dominant pitcher in MLB. From 2015 – 2018, Scherzer has posted an impeccable 2.72 ERA, 2.88 FIP, and 0.929 WHIP. He’s struck out (SO) at least 268 batters in each of those seasons, leading all of baseball in SO for the last 3 consecutive seasons.

According to FanGraphs, since 2014 Scherzer (32 fWAR) has been worth more wins than Mets starter Jacob deGrom (25 fWAR). While I agree that in that span Scherzer has been better, there are some areas in which deGrom tops Scherzer.

Two particular areas are connected, so I’ll break them down together here. The first is ERA and the second is FIP. The former, as you know, demonstrates how many ER a pitcher allows per 9-innings. The latter describes how well a pitcher performs without taking fielders into account.

Now, believe it or not, since 2014, deGrom has a better ERA and FIP than Scherzer.

• Jacob deGrom: 2.68 ERA & 2.80 FIP
• Max Scherzer: 2.80 ERA & 2.88 FIP

If we look closely at their numbers, one thing stands out: HR/9. Since 2014, deGrom’s HR/9 (0.78) is 0.21 points better than Scherzer’s (0.78). This may seem small, but if you look at each player season by season, you’ll see that deGrom consistently allows fewer home runs than Scherzer.

Approaching 35-years of age, Max Scherzer should provide Jacob deGrom with a sense of confidence in what he could be. At 30-years-old, many would consider deGrom, like Scherzer, a late bloomer.

It’ll be interesting to see what deGrom does when he approaches age 35.

Clayton Kershaw

Clayton Kershaw is the greatest pitcher in a generation. If he were to decide to hang up his cleats today, at the age of 31 and just 11 MLB seasons under his belt, there would be no doubt that he’d be voted into the Hall of Fame in the first ballot.

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How many pitchers in baseball history have won MVP awards? Led MLB in ERA 5x, in FIP 2x, in WHIP 4x, and carry 4 NL Cy Young Awards to their names?

Not many.

According to FanGraphs, since 2014 Kershaw (30.6 fWAR) has been worth more wins than Mets starter Jacob deGrom (25 fWAR). While I agree that in that Kershaw is hands down better than deGorom, there is only one area in which deGrom tops Kershaw: susceptibility to the long ball.

Since 2014, in 914.2 IP, deGrom has allowed 72 HR to the opposition. In 916.1 IP, Kershaw has allowed 79. While I understand that I am nitpicking, that’s kind of the point of the piece.

The greatest difference between New York Mets starter Jacob deGrom and the aforementioned greats (Max Scherzer, Corey Kluber, and Clayton Kershaw), however, has already been stated. Way at the start of this piece.

Only deGrom – and Bob Gibson – have ever pitched 26 consecutive quality starts, a measure, for some, of dominance over a long period of time. And since 1969, no other pitcher has allowed 1 ER or less in 51% of their first 141 career starts

Jacob deGrom may have started out late, he made his debut with the Mets in 2014 at the age of 26. However, if we look at baseball’s current greats, except perhaps Kershaw, deGrom is only getting started