Remember when the New York Mets' vaunted super-rotation was a beacon of hope and stability in Queens?
So much for that.
Matt Harvey is lost for the season to shoulder surgery. Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz are pitching through bone spurs in their elbows. And Zack Wheeler has hit multiple speed bumps in his return from Tommy John surgery.
That leaves only Jacob deGrom, who twirled nine scoreless innings against the Philadelphia Phillies on Sunday and served notice that he's still an ace worth leaning on.
No one had given up on deGrom, at least no one whose opinion you should trust. But the 2014 National League Rookie of the Year endured a rough patch early in the season and watched his ERA balloon more than two points between April 30 and May 21.
Over his last nine starts, however, he's vacillated between stout and stellar, striking out 68 in 61 innings while allowing just 12 walks and 13 earned runs.
Sunday's performance was particularly transcendent. Only a walk to woeful Ryan Howard and a hit by Phillies pitcher Zach Eflin stood between deGrom and perfection as he engineered the first complete-game and first shutout of his young career.
And he did other things well, too, as Newsday's Marc Carig pointed out:
"There was all that concern about his velocity early, but he's just gotten a little stronger and a little stronger," manager Terry Collins said after deGrom's gem, per Stephen Pianovich and Evan Webeck of MLB.com. ... "You saw better command today and probably the best sinker he had all year."
Entering play Sunday, deGrom's average fastball velocity of 93.2 mph was a tick below his career average of 94.1 mph. But it's been trending in the right direction. And, as Collins noted, the sinker was on-point against Philadelphia, as deGrom induced 10 ground balls to just five fly balls.
Simply put, he looked like the guy Mets fans have come to know and love. The guy they can count on to anchor a suddenly unsettled starting five.
Things aren't hopeless after deGrom.
Syndergaard sports a 2.56 ERA with 128 strikeouts in 105.2 innings. He left his most recent start on July 8 with what the team termed "arm fatigue," but he threw from 90 feet Friday and said he felt like he had "a new arm," per Maria Guardado of NJ Advance Media.
Matz has posted a 3.38 ERA with 90 strikeouts in 96 innings. And Bartolo Colon, the ageless wonder, is 8-4 with a 3.11 ERA.
But neither Syndergaard nor Matz has logged a full season in the big leagues, and both pitched deep into autumn last season during New York's World Series run. And, again, both are battling arm issues that loom over every start and turn each grimace or twinge into a hold-your-breath moment.
Colon, meanwhile, is a great story, but also a 43-year-old who posted a 4.16 ERA in 2015. Add Harvey's surgery and Wheeler's protracted comeback and it's reasonable to wonder if the Mets might deal for a starting pitcher before the non-waiver trade deadline, a thought that would have seemed absurd a few months ago.
Then again, New York may need to save its trade capital to improve an offense that ranks No. 28 in baseball in runs scored. Last summer, slugger Yoenis Cespedes—who's currently dealing with a balky right quad—rode in as the deadline cavalry. Unless general manager Sandy Alderson can repeat the trick, the Mets might be sunk regardless.
OK, we've taken a dark turn. Now, the good news. At 49-42, New York is tied with the Miami Marlins in the NL wild-card race and sits a manageable six games behind the division-leading Washington Nationals. A couple of hot weeks could easily propel the defending Senior Circuit champs toward the top of the heap.
With the even-year San Francisco Giants and strapping young Chicago Cubs looking vulnerable, the NL remains up for grabs.
If the Mets plan to grab it, they need deGrom to consistently embody the dude who took the hill Sunday. They need him to be the man. And they need him to set aside the fatigue he admitted took a toll in the first half.
"One hundred sixty-two games is a lot," he said, per James Wagner of the New York Times. "We're over halfway through. You start to feel things and get a little worn out. I definitely think that break was needed for me."
The bottom line is this: An area of unmitigated strength has sunk into uncertainty, and deGrom is the most reliable lifeline.
No one expects him to toss a shutout every time he takes the ball. But the 28-year-old right-hander's role is clear: Put this rotation—and, by extension, team—on your back and carry them back to the postseason promised land. He'll need help from his remaining rotation-mates and quite possibly outside reinforcements.
But he has to be a spark—a beacon of hope. And if recent results are any indication, he's up to the task.
All statistics current as of July 17 and courtesy of MLB.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted.
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