Jacob DeGrom was impressive in his first spring start for the New York Mets, but his status for Opening Day remains up in the air.
New York Mets ace Jacob DeGrom, who has been dealing with back stiffness, made his spring training debut Sunday against the defending World Series champions, throwing 47 pitches over 2.2 innings. The deGrominator started out strong, striking out Jake Marisnick, Tony Kemp, and Alex Bregman for a 1-2-3 first inning.
DeGrom finished his first outing having allowed two runs and two hits while walking one and striking out four, hitting 98 mph on the radar gun. The Mets eventually lost the game 5-2 but at least DeGrom escaped no worse for wear.
According to the Associated Press (via ESPN), Mets manager Mickey Callaway was pleased with what he saw.
“He looked fine. He came out of it healthy. We know who Jacob deGrom is.
You saw the stuff, the velo. He wasn’t holding anything back. He was letting it go, and it was good to see. And he pitched a good amount of pitches for his first time out in a real game,”
The lingering question is whether DeGrom will be ready for Opening Day. If healthy, deGrom should get the ball. If he’s not, anyone, from Noah Syndergaard to newcomer Jason Vargas, who has had a good spring, could start things off for the Amazin’s.
Callaway wants to make sure deGrom is healthy before making any decisions. “We’re just taking it day-by-day and going from there.”
DeGrom feels the same way as his coach and is not rushing a return. “I haven’t even thought about it, really. The goal is to get in a game here first and go from there. That’ll be a discussion between Mickey, Dave and probably myself,” said deGrom, who added he was in line for his next start in five days. We don’t want to do anything dumb and push it. Today was a big step and everything went fine.”
The New York Mets open their season against the St. Louis Cardinals at Citi Field on March 26th.
