In his final start of the season, Jacob deGrom allowed just two hits while striking out seven during 7.0 scoreless innings against the Marlins.
As a result, it seems like a lock that he will win his second consecutive Cy Young Award.
DeGrom leads all NL pitchers in WAR, regardless of the system being used to calculate the stat. He has 6.9 WAR, according to Baseball Reference and 6.7 WAR according to FanGraphs.
DeGrom also leads the NL in strikeouts and WHIP, and his 2.43 ERA is second only to Dodgers pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu (2.41).
"He has put himself in the driver's seat," Mickey Callaway said Monday. "He's in control."
In the event deGrom wins, which he better, here are seven things you'll want to know...
He'll be among the greats
DeGrom would be the 11th pitcher in MLB history and the sixth NL pitcher to win back-to-back Cy Young awards, joining some of history's most legendary arms, including Sandy Koufax, Pedro Martinez, Greg Maddux, Randy Johnson, Clayton Kershaw and Jake's repeated rival Max Scherzer.
Seaver and deGrom
In a year when the Mets will be retiring Jerry Koosman's No. 36, deGrom is about to plant himself directly behind Tom Seaver among the organization's greatest pitchers of all time.
DeGrom's second Cy Young would the seventh such award for a Mets pitcher, but Seaver is the only other pitcher to win more than once. The Franchise won a total of three (1969, 1973, 1975), but -- unlike Jake -- he never won in consecutive seasons. Also, don't forget, Jake also has a Rookie of the Year in his trophy case.
Hardware
Speaking of trophies, deGrom will be one of just five pitchers to win both Rookie of the Year and the Cy Young Award. Interestingly, three of those five did it with the Mets (Seaver, Dwight Gooden). Also, in their 58 seasons, no Mets player has ever won the same trophy in back-to -back seasons.
He had a rough start to the season
It seems like forever ago, but remember that deGrom did not have a very good end of April. He was vintage deGrom in his first two starts, but then let up 14 runs in 13 innings to end the month. Since then, though, he allowed two or fewer runs in 23 of his 27 starts, during which he pitched beyond the sixth inning 20 times.
He's not only a brilliant pitcher, but he's also been an absolute workhorse. DeGrom has thrown at least 200 innings during each of the past three seasons. It's one thing to throw the baseball better than anyone in the league, but to be an ace you have to go out and do it every five days.
Bye bye, wins
DeGrom is the definition of a new way of thinking about what makes a successful pitcher.
Among all pitchers that have won the Cy Young two times, he has the fewest combined wins. In other words, as you already know, wins are a bad way to judge great pitching.
When deGrom is on the mound, Mets lose more than they win
As David Lennon pointed in his report for Newsday, deGrom has a 2.05 ERA in his 64 starts the past two seasons. However, in those games, the Mets are eight games under .500 (28-36). The Mets went 14-18 in games started by deGrom this season. It hurts to think about it, but if you flip that around to just 18-14, the Mets would right now be 87-71 and just one game back of the second Wild Card with four games to go.
"I'm happy with how I ended my season, but not happy where we're at," said deGrom, who finished his season on a 23-inning scoreless streak. "The goal is to win a World Series and we fell short of that goal. It's a tough pill to swallow but I think we proved that we can win baseball games. We just have to put it together for a full season."
He's ours...for now
It's nice to finally watch a great Mets pitcher and not worry about what will happen when he hits free agency in a year or two. Thank God you gave him that contract extension when you did, Brodie!!
However, don't get too comfortable. In case you forgot, deGrom can opt out of his current contract after the 2022 season. He won't, I assume, because at that time he'll be 34 years old and due another $62 million. Nevertheless, it's not guaranteed he will stick around.
The winner of the league's top pitching honor is determined by votes submitted by the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) before the start of the postseason.
However, the winner is not announced until the middle of November.
Matthew Cerrone (Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Contact) is lead writer of MetsBlog.com, which he created in 2003. He also hosts the MetsBlog Podcast, which you can subscribe to here. His new book, The New York Mets Fans' Bucket List, details 44 things every Mets fan should experience during their lifetime. To check it out, click here!