Is 'deGrom or Cole' the new 'Mays or Mantle'?

In the 50s in New York baseball, of course, the debate was about center fielders. It was about Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle and Duke Snider, “Willie, Mickey and The Duke” in Terry Cashman’s iconic song, “Talkin’ Baseball.”

And by the way? If you don’t think Duke Snider belonged that in that particular conversation, go look at his stats, and see that he was the one who was the home run king of the city in that time, and by a fair amount, averaging 41 homers a year between 1953-57.

Now, all this time later, we have a different kind of debate, built around two pretty remarkable starting pitchers -- Jacob deGrom and Gerrit Cole -- one that makes you ask this question:

Who’s the ace of New York?

It happens to be the kind of conversation we haven’t had a lot with the Yankees and the Mets over the years. When Tom Seaver was at his most brilliant, the Yankees didn't have a comparable ace. When Ron Guidry was 25-3 for the Yankees in 1978, it was after Seaver had been traded to the Reds. But it is worth noting that when Dwight Gooden was 24-4 seven years later, the 34-year old Guidry was still around, and still had enough arm and stuff to go 22-6 that year.

Now we have deGrom and Cole, in Queens and the Bronx, on teams that think they are good enough to go to the World Series this season. And when you look at the numbers over the past three seasons, even knowing that deGrom won two consecutive National League Cy Young Awards and has become the heir to the great Seaver with the Mets, you see how little separates them.

Start with Cole, who got that whopping $324 million free agent contract from the Yankees. It sounds out there, knowing that he is a Yankee now and that he did get all that money, but he might be better than you think.

Cole’s record over the past three seasons, the first two with the Astros, was 42-13. His earned run average was 2.72 in a DH league (deGrom didn’t have to face designated hitters regularly until the short season of 2020). Cole pitched 485 2/3 innings and struck out 696 batters. Yeah. Let that sink in. Just shy of 500 innings pitched and just shy of 700 strikeouts.

And even giving up a surprising amount of home runs last season (14), Cole still ended up with a 7-3 record for the Yankees, 94 strikeouts in 73 innings and a 2.84 ERA. He has four more wins than any other pitcher in the game since 2018. He has more strikeouts than anybody else, including deGrom.

On top of all that, Gerrit Cole has won seven postseason games over the past three seasons, also the most for any starting pitcher in that span. He was 2-0 for the Yankees last October in three starts, pitching 18 1/3 innings and striking out 30. In Game 5 against the Rays, before he was pulled with one out in the sixth, Cole had struck out nine and allowed just one hit and one run.

The Yankees weren’t everything they were supposed to be last season. Cole sure was.

Then there is Mr. deGrom, who not only won those two NL Cy Youngs in 2018-19, but was good enough to finish third in the voting last season (Cole has finished in the top five for three straight seasons). Even people in outer space know how little run support deGrom has gotten from the Mets, which explains why his record is just 25-19 the past three seasons, despite the fact that he has started just one fewer game than Cole did between Houston and New York.

Jacob deGrom is No. 3 in strikeouts over the past three seasons. But he has the best ERA, at 2.10 (Cole is fourth), which means he is not all that far from having an ERA under two runs per game over those 76 starts of his (in 2018 his ERA was 1.70). He is like Cole in this sense.

The numbers we are talking about, with both of them, practically give off a beam of light. It is one more thing that makes you want the regular season in New York to start right now. Cole, obviously, is the new guy in town. deGrom has been pitching this way for years with the Mets. When he got a shot at October, in 2015, when the Mets made it all the way to the World Series, he pitched like a total star against the Dodgers and Cubs.

“He dares you to reach base,” is the way the Mets’ great radio voice, Howie Rose, puts it.

deGrom and Cole. Cole and deGrom. When you add it all up, the Mets and Yankees probably have the two most dominant starters in baseball. Deciding which one you think is better most likely depends on for whom you are rooting.

But here is something for which every baseball fan should be rooting:

The Yankees and Mets play their first three-game Subway Series at Yankee Stadium on July 4 weekend. Then the two teams do it again on Sept. 10-12 at Citi Field. You have to hope that at least once, and maybe twice, deGrom and Cole get to start against each other. Then we can see for ourselves.