MLB Rumors: Mets, Jacob deGrom Holding Preliminary Contract Extension Talks

Starting pitcher Jacob deGrom and the New York Mets have begun preliminary contract extension talks, according to Anthony DiComo of MLB.com:

The 30-year-old Mets ace enjoyed a dominant National League Cy Young-winning campaign in 2018 thanks to a league-leading 1.70 ERA and 269 strikeouts in 217.0 innings. For his career, deGrom is 55-41 with a 2.67 ERA and 10.0 K/9 rate.

According to Cot's Baseball Contracts, deGrom is up for his third and fourth years of arbitration this offseason and the next before entering free agency in 2021.

Obviously, the Mets don't want deGrom skipping town and prefer locking up and rewarding one of MLB's best pitchers long-term. He is a key cog on a team clearly shooting for the postseason and beyond with the recent Robinson Cano/Edwin Diaz deal.

Although deGrom is entering his age-31 season, he has far less mileage on his arm than others his age. He's only made 139 starts over five MLB seasons and eclipsed 200 innings just twice.

DeGrom also made just 58 minor league starts from 2010 to 2014 and didn't even pitch in his first two collegiate seasons (he was a shortstop for his first two years at Stetson University).

He did get Tommy John surgery and was forced to miss his entire 2011 minor league campaign, but deGrom only has two disabled-list stints since 2014.

In other words, a long-term investment in deGrom is a wise choice given that he could conceivably pitch at a high level deep into his 30s. It also helps that he's been one of the best pitchers in the game since he got the call to the bigs.

As for the Mets' chances to extend deGrom, his former agent (Brodie Van Wagenen) is now the team's general manager. Van Wagenen left Creative Artists Agency (CAA) to take the Mets gig, which ended his tenure at deGrom's agent. Having that built-in rapport already should assist New York's extension efforts here.