New York Mets: Analyzing Jacob deGrom’s climb up the Mets’ all-time strike out leaderboard

New York Mets ace, Jacob deGrom, continues to be his usual self after a shaky start this season. On Tuesday, he moved into seventh all-time in franchise history in strikeouts, but what does the accomplishment honestly tell us?

The New York Mets are once again not even in July and are surrounded by mostly negative headlines and struggling to stay afloat. But also once again, it is Jacob deGrom who is keeping the fan base sane by bringing his usual self every fifth day. And Tuesday’s start in Atlanta might have just felt like a standard deGrom start, but during it, he accomplished something unique.

He recorded his 1,107th career strikeout, all with the Mets. That number which is seemingly random is far from it. With that, he moved into seventh all-time in strikeouts in franchise history. For a franchise who’s intentions have almost always been built on pitching, that is an exceptional achievement.

Stats are a definitive thing. They mean one thing and are facts, but what does this number truly mean for Jacob deGrom? It means a little bit more for him than usual.

Typically, any pitcher who sticks around on any team long enough could break every franchise record. For deGrom and whatever list he ascends, it will end up being a mixture of both skill and loyalty because he still has many years left on his lucrative deal from this offseason.

https://twitter.com/Mets/status/1141147021002399744

Atop the list, which I will link below, is, of course, Tom Seaver and Dwight Gooden. deGrom is still over 700 K’s away from passing Doc and over 1,000 away from Seaver, who he has seemingly no chance at.

But, in the middle of that are some unusual names. Jerry Koosman, Sid Fernandez, Ron Darling, and David Cone. All of those names are from players who had mostly longevity, but also a window of some fantastic seasons.

Right now, deGrom is in the middle of his prime, and a bulk of his strikeouts have come in the last two seasons, going over 230 both years. He already has over 100 this season, so that is likely to be three straight seasons over 200.

Out of all the other pitchers above deGrom on that list, only Gooden and Seaver have done that as Mets in their careers. Cone went for 200 or more three times in four years, not including 1992 where he didn’t finish the year as a Met. Fernandez and Koosman only went for 200 K’s, and exactly that number, once each. While Darling never eclipsed 200 in a season.

deGrom, much like the legends that top the list, is getting a lot of them in a short amount of time as opposed to chipping away at it. Koosman, who was a Met for 12 seasons, didn’t go over 200 K’s until his ninth full season, will probably be passed by deGrom for third all-time in Mets history at some point in the life of deGrom’s contract, who has only been a Met for almost five full years now.

What is also an interesting note, is that deGrom is not in the top 10 of innings pitched in franchise history yet. He already has more strikeouts than people in the top 10 like John Matlack, Al Leiter, Craig Swan, and Bobby Jones in significantly fewer innings, according to baseball reference. Those are some of the pitchers he just passed to take over seventh all time.

Also, five of the pitchers currently above deGrom in strikeouts are in the top five in games started, where deGrom is not even the top 10 either at just 154 careers starts, according to baseball reference and adding on Tuesday night.

Let me save you the time… 99.9% of this information is according to baseball reference…

The point is, Jacob deGrom is a strikeout specialist. Sure, he can go the distance sometimes and go deep into his games, but he earns his outs. Of course, him being a Met and hopefully healthy for the foreseeable future is going to see him crack into the franchise history is starts, innings, games played, etc. but it is still impressive where he stands on strikeouts.

However, the fact that he is already seventh all-time in team history in strikeouts shows how great he is, based on the players above him and how long it took them playing to get there. Plus, deGrom has a chance for even 90 more strikeouts this season, which would leapfrog him over Cone and into the top five.

Overall, we all know how great and unique deGrom is. But what we don’t know yet is how great and special he will end up being when it’s all said and done. At this rate, and I don’t mean this to knock the pitchers above him, but he is much closer to the Seaver’s and Gooden’s than he is to the Koosman’s or Fernandez’s in the sense that he might not be just a good pitcher for a long time, but a genuinely elite one for a reasonable amount of time. Both have their perks, but which is better is an argument for a different day.

Either way, you can’t write about the history of the Mets without any of them. Let’s hope the Mets don’t waste deGrom, and they surprisingly didn’t spend Seaver or Gooden.