Jacob DeGrom to Start Opening Day for Mets

In news that will surely shock the baseball world, manager Luis Rojas has named Jacob deGrom the Mets’ opening day starter. Justin Toscano of The Record tweeted it first, shortly followed by Anthony DiComo of MLB, both of whom added some humor to the widely expected news.

The announcement is timely, considering deGrom is about to take the mound against the Houston Astros for the Mets’ sixth spring training game. DeGrom has established himself with a good case for baseball’s best pitcher, with back-to-back Cy Young awards in 2018 and 2019, and a combined 16.0 fWAR in those two years. He was still great in the shortened 2020 season, posting a 2.38 ERA and 2.26 FIP in 12 starts.

DeGrom is clearly the frontrunner in the Mets rotation, but the order of the rest of the staff is a little more up for grabs. It should, though, be some combination of Marcus Stroman, Carlos Carrasco, David Peterson, Joey Lucchesi and Taijuan Walker.

This will be deGrom’s third consecutive opening day start.

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