Mets rookie starter Jacob deGrom went from light-hitting shortstop to major league pitcher
By Mike Vorkunov | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
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on May 21, 2014 at 6:55 PM, updated May 22, 2014 at 10:20 AM
NEW YORK -- Pete Dunn, the Stetson baseball coach, had a plan for Jacob deGrom going into his junior year at the university. He would be the school's starting shortstop and the team's closer.
But the Hatters struggled to begin the year and a dozen games into the year, deGrom had hardly taken the mound. With their starting pitching in tatters, Dunn moved the shortstop into the rotation.
For the duration of the year, he would start on Friday nights.
"He’s the best arm we have," Dunn said this weekend by phone.
"We did take a hit defensively at shortstop but I think we more than made up for it in putting him on the mound."
That decision four years ago, made out of sheer necessity, had a long-standing implication. A wiry, light hitting infielder began his path to the major leagues.
Last weekend, deGrom made his major league debut for the Mets. He was not the club's highest-touted pitching prospect. Nor had he even been called up from Triple-A with the knowledge that he would start.
The Mets had brought him up with the understanding that a role in the bullpen was likely. But an injury to Dillon Gee opened up a starting spot. Two days later, facing the Yankees, with 17 friends, family members, and even neighbors sitting in Citi Field, deGrom shut them down for just a run in seven innings.
Tonight, he will make his second start, facing the high-priced Dodgers and a lineup chock full of All-Stars. All Terry Collins, the Mets manager, has said is that if he can match his debut, it would be more than enough.
"I wouldn’t say it was a validation," deGrom, 25, said. "I was thankful to have the opportunity and thankful that it went well."
"It’s nice to see that, for myself, I can pitch at this level."
It was the culmination of an unspectacular road to the majors for deGrom.
At 6-foot-4, with a sinewy frame, and long legs, deGrom stands tall on the mound and pumps 94 mph fastballs with regularity,. His shoulder-length hair vibe, though he comes from inland Florida.
DeGrom began playing baseball in his backyard, with his father, Tony, chasing down ground balls and playing catch.
In high school, he was little noticed. DeGrom attended Calvary Christian Academy, a school of roughly 400 students from kindergarten to 12th grade. Of eight population size designations in Florida, Calvary was in the smallest.
Stetson recruited him as a shortstop, having seen him play in the summers in American Legion leagues, and didn't have much competition.
And before he made his turn into a starting pitcher, deGrom was a slick-fielding but unspectacular hitter at shortstop. After Dunn learned that he had broken the hitless streak that stuck with Mets pitchers, he was a little surprised considering deGrom's work with the bat in college.
When the decision came to move deGrom to the mound, Dunn told him it would serve him best for the short term and the future. In the times deGrom had pitched, his coach had seen a fresh arm and a body perfect for the position's demands.
A serendipitous start would soon prove that to be true. Though deGrom had attracted some attention from professional scouts, he did not become besieged by them until his second start.
Facing Florida Gulf Coast University, he took the mound opposite Chris Sale. Before Sale became a star for the White Sox, he was a highly touted prospect who would become a first round pick.
Scouts filled the stadium. Sale struck out 14 eight innings, and deGrom impressed enough in six innings. Soon letters from scouts started arriving at his locker.
That June, the Mets drafted him in the ninth round. Dunn even thought he could have gone earlier.
But by August, after just six starts in rookie ball, deGrom had to undergo Tommy John surgery. He had arrived at the hospital for an MRI to learn what had been bothering him, but was in surgery by that afternoon.
He would not pitch again until 2012, and slowly made his way through the Mets farm system. He finished last season in Triple-A and began there this season.
Yet, he came back a changed pitcher. After a broken ring finger had changed his mechanics last year, he spent the offseason fixing them. He came to spring training able to reach 95 mph more consistently and finding it easier to induce ground balls.
When the Mets brought him up last week, his first appearance did not come with the appeal of Zack Wheeler's last year or even Rafael Montero's the night before. Instead, deGrom dominated the Yankees to some surprise.
Now, the Mets hope he can do it again.
"It’s really going to be hard," Collins said. "I’ll just take a repeat performance. The quality of stuff and quality of location and pace and everything else he went through, tremendous composure on the mound. I thought as the game went on he got better. You saw more confidence in his stuff and using all his pitches. Pretty impressive and if he can do that again it will be pretty impressive.”
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