ARLINGTON, Texas — Sure it is killing him. Sure, Jacob deGrom is pitching each playoff game in his mind — pitch to pitch — going through the mental gymnastics because that is all that is possible now.
“It stinks,” deGrom offers while standing in the Globe Life Field home dugout, pivoting from one foot to another as he stares out at an empty field. For now, though, he is limited to counseling another pitcher seeking advice. Cheerleading. Playing the game only in his mind. It is not enough.
“I want to do what I love to do,” deGrom said.
But deGrom is just four months post his second Tommy John surgery. He is ticking off items. He has full range of motion back and is two months away from doing more extensive upper-body exercises. Throwing is not far beyond that in the new year. He expects to be off a mound in spring training.
Normally a revision means a 14-18-month period at the earliest to returning to a major league mound. But deGrom’s first procedure was so long ago, in 2010 after his rookie ball season, that he says he is receiving encouragement from the doctors that maybe he can hit the short side of that. The target basically is next August.
“My arm feels pretty close to normal already,” he said.
But this was always the risk with deGrom. When he has pitched, he has been the best. Which is why the Rangers, with a full-throttle approach to try to win now, ignored the last two years of medical red flags — elbow inflammation that doomed the second half of 2021, a stress reaction in the scapula that doomed the first half of 2022 — and signed deGrom for six years at $185 million. DeGrom lasted six starts, through April 28 against the Yankees.
So, he has totaled 32 starts the last three seasons combined — the same as produced this year by Zack Wheeler — the most durable and arguably excellent of what was that one-time dream Mets rotation with deGrom, Matt Harvey, Steven Matz and Noah Syndergaard.
Now, deGrom is looking at not pitching for most (if not all) of 2024. He had said upon signing with Texas that his goal was to be a Hall of Famer. But with just 1,356 ¹/₃ career innings and 84 wins, deGrom said, “I’d have to go on a pretty crazy run to an older age to end my career, which I think I can do.”
But can he? It is not just that deGrom is 35. No starter consistently threw a fastball and slider with his velocity. He admits that he will have to reconsider his style, perhaps throttle back.
“I am getting a little bit older,” deGrom said. “I believe I can pitch at a lower velocity and reach back and get something else when needed. That is something I have to look into. But when I talked to [his surgeon] Dr. [Keith] Meister he says, ‘You guys are all wired the same, someone steps in the box and you do what you do.’ I have to think about it, but I know if I give up a homer at 94 [mph] and I know I could have ripped it, that would be tough for me. When you are out there, you want to go 100 percent.”
Even with deGrom just pitching games in his mind, the Rangers made the playoffs for the first time since 2016 and have won their first seven postseason games. They lead the ALCS 2-0 against the Astros. Jordan Montgomery, one pitcher obtained to help replace deGrom, won Game 1. Max Scherzer, who had a glowing recommendation of the Rangers culture from deGrom before waiving his no-trade clause to come from the Mets, starts Game 3.
DeGrom admits he was surprised after 101 wins in 2022 and then another offseason buildup that the Mets were sellers at the deadline. The buildup came despite deGrom’s exit — coincidentally the guy who replaced deGrom in Flushing, Justin Verlander, also is in this ALCS with the Astros.
The sense was that deGrom couldn’t wait to escape New York — that the small-town Florida guy wanted out. He grew more withdrawn in his latter Mets days.
“I don’t like it when people say that because that’s not true,” deGrom said. “You know me pretty well — I like to pitch and that’s about it. I understand the other stuff that comes with it, but what I want to do is take the field, play and then get ready for the next time I play. I felt like I did that in New York.”
He insists he was never mad about his extension, the five-year, $137.5 million deal signed under the bizarre situation that his former agent (who would know his financial desires) had become the general manager. Brodie Van Wagenen said he recused himself from those negotiations, which mainly produced a team-friendly deal.
“If you would have told me at the start of my career I would have received that kind of contract, I wouldn’t have believed it — that is life-changing money, so to say I was upset is wrong,” deGrom said.
Nevertheless, he concedes that the lifestyle and speed of life in Texas more fits his DNA. He and his wife had a third child in June. He says they always loved the name Nolan and they wondered if it would be weird considering the legacy of Nolan Ryan in these parts. DeGrom says he wants to play long enough and well enough for Nolan to see it.
He says this still staring out at the field, still looking at the Globe Life mound.