Priority No. 1 for Mets: Healthy deGrom in October

It had been another night when Jacob deGrom looked like a six-inning pitching immortal, against the Rockies this time. He had allowed three hits, including one home run, struck out nine, walked one (and got squeezed when he did). This is his fifth start after being away from the Mets for more than a year. His earned run average for the time being is 2.15. deGrom is the only starting pitcher alive for whom that number actually feels high. He has struck out 46 batters in 29 1/3 innings and, as always, made it look easy.

This was a couple of hours after the game and Buck Showalter, deGrom’s manager, was asked to describe what it has been like to finally watch deGrom pitch games for the Mets that matter, because they all matter the rest of the way.

“He’s a closer starting,” Showalter said, and that said it all.

Showalter is being careful with deGrom, because you would be, too. Buck is playing the long game with shorter starts. deGrom was supposed to start on Tuesday night against the Yankees at Yankee Stadium. He was pushed back to the opener of a four-game series against the Rockies, and came out firing, and finally left after throwing 87 pitches. But for those 87, Jacob deGrom was as close to his best pitching self as he needed to be, which means he is back to looking like one of the most dominant righthanded pitchers of all time.

Six-inning immortal again, at least for now. He looks like the pitcher who won back-to-back Cy Young Awards in 2018 and '19. He looks like the pitcher who, in the three seasons since then that include the short season of 2020 and the one shortened in ’21 because deGrom got hurt, has only given up as many as three earned runs four times across 32 starts.

Showalter is being careful with him and the Mets are being careful with him because in the season when they got to 80 wins by Aug. 25, they are looking to baseball’s October season at the same time. The Mets are looking to a postseason when they believe that deGrom can play the part of a right-handed Randy Johnson and Max Scherzer can play the part of Curt Schilling. Showalter briefly had them both in Arizona, the year before Johnson and Schilling pitched the D-backs past the whole world in October of ’01.

No other team in baseball have a pair of aces like this, five Cy Young Awards between them, finally together at the top of Showalter’s rotation as the Mets try to hold off the Braves in the National League East. The Mets once had Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman at the top of their rotation. They’ve never had a 1-2 combination like this. And they have survived Scherzer missing seven weeks, at the age of 38, because of an oblique injury, and deGrom not joining the season until the end of July.

“Just appreciate what Jake’s doing for what it is,” Showalter said.

After not pitching for 391 days, no one was quite sure what they would get back with deGrom. And what they have gotten is the deGrom who left them in the summer of 2021. All these strikeouts. Two walks in his 29 1/3 innings. Just 14 hits. He is 34 now. But at his best, he still looks like what Dwight Gooden looked like when he was young.

deGrom throws 100 mph and still makes it look effortless, but over his last few starts, even he seems to be playing the long game, featuring his slider, even mixing in some changeups and curves. No one knows what will happen with him after the season, if he stays healthy until the end of it. deGrom has the right to become a free agent and, as great as he is, it will be interesting to see if a team -- including the Mets -- is willing to break the bank the way the Mets did to get Scherzer, considering deGrom’s injury history.

For now, though, deGrom Day has become as exciting for Mets fans as it always was, maybe made more exciting because a Scherzer Day is coming up right behind it this weekend.

“Jake was great for us. Shocker,” Pete Alonso said after Thursday night’s game, one that featured the shot to left the Polar Bear hit for his 31st home run (and RBI nos. 103 and 104).

“After I went to 95 (pitches) in Atlanta I felt completely fine,” deGrom said. “I think we’re checking off all the boxes.”

But Showalter added this to the conversation:

“It’s not a pure pitch count. It’s an eye test. If it passes the eye test, he continues to pitch.”

You see how he pitched against the Rockies. Some of the headlines described his outing as “solid.” It tells you how high the bar is once again set for him. Nights like this are now considered routine for Jacob deGrom.

Buck’s right. Appreciate what he’s doing for what it is, and hope he stays healthy. Because what this is for the New York Mets, especially as they prepare to look back on Old-Timers Day this weekend, is kind of legendary.