deHEAT IS ON!
Jacob K’s velocity concerns of ’16 by hitting 97 mph in spring debut
Last year’s worries over Jacob deGrom’s velocity appear to be in past as Met righty is firing fastballs in first Grapefruit League start.
WEST PALM BEACH — It was just a quick peek. Jacob deGrom walked around the mound after striking out Josh Reddick and looked up to the radar gun on the scoreboard in center field. There the Mets right hander found all the reassurance he needed Saturday: a 97 mile-an-hour reading on his fastball.
“Last year, I had to give all I had to get to 92, it felt like,” deGrom said after his first Grapefruit League start of the year.
And it was the first little reassurance the Mets have had this spring about their rotation, which had three pitchers require season-ending surgery. They need deGrom, Matt Harvey and Steven Matz to stay healthy if they have a chance of returning to the playoffs this season.
“We’ve said before. There is no guarantee surgery is going to work,” Terry Collins said. “You just want to get them back out there. That’s why we took it slow, tried to make sure everybody is OK and we didn’t overdo it.
“So far, what we’ve seen with the first group of guys look good,” the manager said after the Mets beat the Astros 3-1 at the new Ballpark of the Palm Beaches.
The Mets’ big test comes Sunday when Harvey makes his first Grapefruit League start of the 2017 season. Harvey, who was struggling with command and loss of feeling in his fingers, was shut down in July, needing surgery for Thoracic Outlet Syndrome.
Compared to the Tommy John surgery Harvey returned from in 2015, TOS is much rarer among pitchers. The condition, which compresses the blood flow and nerves from the shoulder to the arm, forced older pitchers like Josh Beckett and Chris Carpenter into retirement. For Chris Young, however, having the surgery saved his career and allowed him to return to win a World Series with the Royals in 2015.
“It’s a different surgery,” Collins said. “He’s had very, very good pens, but I don’t want him to overthrow. I just want him to get out there, get himself in some rhythm and throw strikes.”
Just like Collins watched deGrom do Saturday. The manager and pitching coach Dan Warthen were surprised when deGrom’s fastball touched 97 in the first inning, but confident watching him work his way through two perfect frames. He struck out three with 26 pitches, 19 for strikes.
“I was a little nervous….. I think getting out there and having the adrenaline going like in a game for the first time since surgery, I was a little nervous,” deGrom said. “I’m glad I got out there and was able to throw the ball where I wanted to.”
He never felt like he could do that in a 2016 season that featured a slog through injuries, a medical scare after the birth of his son and finally a nerve issue in his surgically-reconstructed right elbow that required him to be shut down and have surgery.
That likely resulted in a drop in velocity from his 2014 Rookie of the Year season and the 2015 season in which he led the staff to the World Series. DeGrom’s fastball averaged nearly 96 mph in October 2015, but averaged just 94 through most of 2016.
“Seriously that was the question every day I threw. ‘What’s wrong with you, why aren’t you throwing harder,’” deGrom said. “You say it doesn’t get to you, but if somebody asks you it enough, you’re thinking about it.
“I wasn’t worried about it this year though,” deGrom said.
That is because when he was finally cleared to start throwing after surgery, deGrom ripped apart his delivery from 2016. He was constantly changing his mechanics, feeling like he was fighting himself to find a comfortable delivery. So this winter, deGrom focused on the basics, like keeping his shoulder in line and pointed straight at home plate from the point he took the ball out of his glove.
“I feel like the ball has been coming out a lot better this spring. Back to the mechanics thing,” deGrom said. “Now I have the down movement I want and I am more accurate. And I can throw the ball more often where I want with good mechanics.”
And apparently with a lot more zip, too. That was all the reassurance the Mets and deGrom needed Saturday.