Inside The Mets

Ex-Mets' Cy Young Winner to Make 2024 Debut

This former Mets Cy Young winner is making his long awaited return.

Logan VanDine

May 23, 2023; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Texas Rangers pitcher Jacob deGrom (48) looks on from the dugout before the game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images
May 23, 2023; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Texas Rangers pitcher Jacob deGrom (48) looks on from the dugout before the game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images / Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images
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After over a year on the injured list, this former New York Mets ace is scheduled to make his long-awaited return to the mound.

Jacob deGrom is set to make his 2024 season debut for the Texas Rangers on Friday, after recovering from Tommy John surgery. The two-time Cy Young award winner, who is in the second year of a five-year, $185 million deal, last pitched in the major leagues on April 30, 2023.

The right-hander left the Mets in December 2022 after spending nine seasons with them. During his tenure, deGrom won the National League Rookie of the Year Award in 2014, was selected to the All-Star Game four times, and won back-to-back NL Cy Young Awards in 2018 and 2019; his four-year peak from 2018-2021 is considered one of the finest stretches of dominance by a pitcher in the 21st century.

However, the 36-year-old has since been hampered by injuries over the last several seasons. deGrom made just 15 starts during the 2021 season; despite having an impressive 1.08 ERA in the first half of the season, he missed the entire second half due to elbow inflammation. The starter had more injury problems the following season, as he missed the first four months of the 2022 season with a stress reaction in his right scapula and made just 11 starts that year.

The injury issues prompted the Mets to let him walk in free agency after 2022, despite all of his accomplishments in Queens. deGrom ended up signing a record-setting contract with the Rangers, but would make just six starts in his first season with his new team; a torn UCL forced him to undergo Tommy John surgery and sidelined him for almost two whole seasons.

deGrom made four rehab starts for the Rangers Triple-A affiliate, the Round Rock Express, and looked like his old Cy Young self. He pitched 10.2 innings and gave up just three hits, one earned run and 15 strikeouts in those outings.

He will take the mound for the Rangers on September 13 against the Seattle Mariners, with the first pitch scheduled for 10:10 p.m. EST.

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Logan VanDine
LOGAN VANDINE

Logan is a graduate of Rider University where he majored in Sports Media and minored in Sports Studies. During his time at Rider, Logan worked for Rider's radio station, 107.7 The Bronc as a sports host, producer and broadcaster, and for the school's paper: The Rider News. He began his time with The Rider News as a section writer for sports and was a copy editor for two years followed by being one of the sports editors during his senior year. Logan also placed third in the New Jersey Press Foundation Awards for sports feature writing. Aside from his work on Yankees and Mets On SI, he is also a writer for FanSided covering the New York Giants and Mets and also covers the Giants for Total Apex Sports.

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