PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- Jacob deGrom looked to his left and to his right, down a row of lockers reserved for Noah Syndergaard, Matt Harvey, Steven Matz and Zack Wheeler.
"It's not easy to go out there and throw 200 innings -- I don't think anybody here has, not including playoffs," deGrom said, nodding toward the lockers. "So that's kind of the next thing for us, to get out there and make the 35 starts and get to that 200 mark."
Though deGrom is a former Rookie of the Year and All-Star, he has never pitched 200 innings in a regular season. In 2015, he toppled the number only in October, adding 25 innings to his regular-season total of 191. But minor arm trouble prevented him from making a full complement of starts that year, just as elbow surgery forced a premature end to his '16 season.
Neither Harvey nor Wheeler has pitched 200 innings in a regular season. Matz has never come close. Syndergaard fell short last year in his first full season, despite being the only one of that bunch healthy from April through September.
Heading into this season, Syndergaard has a strong chance to eclipse the 200-inning mark. But so, too, does deGrom, who says he feels better now "than at any point last year."
"That's what I want to do. … The goal is to get 200 during the regular season," deGrom said. "You get guys like Bartolo [Colon] who do that, they stay around for a long time. That's kind of the main goal."
Rather than pitch Saturday against the Braves, whom he will oppose during his first start of the season on April 5, deGrom hung back for a Minor League intrasquad game at the Mets' complex, where lax rules allowed him address various tweaks to his game. Twice, the Mets placed a runner on first base to start an inning, giving deGrom and catcher Travis d'Arnaud a chance to work on containing the running game. In his sixth and final inning, deGrom threw almost exclusively changeups, a point of emphasis for him in general this spring.
In sum, deGrom threw six-plus innings, allowing three hits and a walk. He struck out five and needed just 77 pitches against a team featuring top prospects Amed Rosario and Dominic Smith.
"He had every pitch to every quadrant of the zone," d'Arnaud said. "We were able to mix and match a bunch of different competitions."
For deGrom, the greater challenge will come not in March, but throughout the long summer. His quest for 200 innings will begin April 5 opposite Colon -- a mentor to many Mets pitchers throughout his time in New York.
"I don't think I'll buzz him," deGrom said, joking about their impending meeting. "I just don't want him to get a hit off me."
Anthony DiComo