Happy Laundry Day!
Before you throw that first load of the day into the washing machine, do you mind if I add one of my own in there? You’re doing colors, right? Sweet, thanks.
Listen. I know. I know. This shirt is truly cursed. But, years from now when deGrom and Scherzer are both retired and our blue and orange bleeding hearts have healed from Max’s Wildcard Series meltdown against the Padres...this might actually be a pretty cool thing to have in my closet.
This was an unbelievable moment as a Mets fan. It seemed like our new owner, Steve Cohen, was exactly what we were hoping he would be…an owner who spent money and spent money on the top players available. Max Scherzer, though entering his 37-year-old season, was still a superstar pitcher. Adding him to the top of our rotation alongside Jacob deGrom would mark the first time we had two aces on our staff since Wheeler left via free agency in 2019.
Coming off an injury-riddled season in 2021, we were all hoping that deGrom had shaken the injury bug. No such luck. He was shut down in spring training with a stress reaction in his scapula, something that would prevent him from making a start for the Mets until August. With deGrom out, Scherzer did his best to anchor the pitching staff. He made 23 starts that season, but found himself missing significant time with a nagging oblique issue. Injuries aside, the numbers were pretty damn good.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who wonders what could have been if our two aces could have stayed healthy, especially considering the team won 101 games without either one contributing a full season. If we could have Frankensteined (a verb I’ve never used before) them together—we may have ended up with a stat-line that looked like this.
Shout out to Dr. Frankenstein—this is some nice work right here. A dominant season out of his new monster, Jax deScherzer.
Now, in 2022 Sandy Alcantara of the Miami Marlins was the unanimous winner of the NL Cy Young Award. He had a spectacular season out of him that included 6 complete games, a 2.28 ERA, and a WHIP under 1.00. And this was for a team that only won 69 games (nice).
When looking at the stats head to head, does Alcantara still win the NL Cy Young in 2022? Probably, but it sure as hell isn’t unanimous…and it sure as hell isn’t as fun as watching Frankenstein's Monster shove.
In retrospect, the deGrom/Scherzer ‘22 shirt may have been a complete jinx, but at least its better than this one:
