Dazzling deGrom in a league of his own 

JUPITER, Fla. -- The ballpark, Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium, wasn’t close to being full on a Spring Training afternoon from which you could start to see Opening Day with a lot more clarity now -- less than three weeks down the road. But the ones who were there were watching the guy, Jacob deGrom, who was the best baseball pitcher in the world last season, the season during which he turned 30 and somehow turned himself into a phenom.

For this one season, even with a won-loss record of 10-9, deGrom was to Mets fans what Tom Seaver once was. In what became a lost season after the team's 11-1 start, deGrom felt like The Franchise. Because when deGrom had the ball last season, the Mets' season still mattered. He became one of 11 qualified starters in the last 100 years to have an ERA of 1.70 or lower. Since the mound was lowered by Major League Baseball in 1969, deGrom became one of just three pitchers -- Dwight Gooden and Zack Greinke were the others -- to have at least 30 starts and 210 innings pitched and have an ERA of 1.70 or lower.

In the end, deGrom would finish his dazzling season with 29 straight starts of giving up three earned runs or fewer. He finished the season with 24 straight quality starts. These are all numbers that give off a beam of light, and always will. Seaver and Gooden pitched like this for the Mets once.

“Watching him last year was like watching Doc [Gooden] in ’85,” John Franco said at Roger Dean Stadium on Tuesday, watching deGrom begin to stretch himself out for his Opening Day start with five innings against the Marlins.

In 1985, of course, Gooden was 24-4 for the Mets, with an ERA of 1.53, and looked like a right-handed Sandy Koufax. But that Mets team, a year away from a World Series championship, chased the Cardinals in the National League East all the way to a rousing three-game series at old Busch Stadium in September. They had Keith Hernandez and Gary Carter and other young starters. The Mets had other young starters in 2018. Mostly all they had was deGrom.

Matt Harvey was supposed to be the next Seaver once. He was the Dark Knight of Gotham City. Then Noah Syndergaard, known as Thor, became the new comic book pitching hero. Syndergaard won more games than deGrom did last year, but deGrom was still the one. Every five days, he made you watch Mets games, and care, and showed you how much he cared even when his team couldn’t buy or steal him enough runs. deGrom beat out Max Scherzer for the NL Cy Young Award. He beat them all. He was that good.

Franco is a Brooklyn kid. He was 9 years old when Seaver was 25-7 in 1969 and the Mets became the Miracle Mets. Franco grew up to become a closer for the Reds, and then with the Mets after that. Franco has always loved talking about pitching. Now here he was in a seat on the first-base side of Roger Dean Stadium watching deGrom work, on a day when he didn’t nearly have his best stuff but who was, when he was at his best, still something to see.

“He has it all and does it all,” Franco said. “He comes at you with the same motion, and the same arm angle. He works both sides of the plate. He changes your eye angle when he wants to. And when he wants to dial it up in the high 90s, he dials it up. Watching him pitch like this is a beautiful thing.”

There was some contact against deGrom in the first inning, three hits by the Marlins -- one an infield hit -- that did not produce a run because of a fine throw from Juan Lagares to cut down a runner at third base. deGrom came out in the second as if almost annoyed with himself for getting nicked up that way. He buried Chad Wallach with an inside fastball that came in at 96 mph. Later Trevor Richards struck out swinging on another. In the third, deGrom tried to get a slider away on Brian Anderson and it wasn’t nearly far enough away, and Anderson hit it over the right-field wall.

deGrom would end up pitching five innings -- six hits, six strikeouts, no walks. No one knows for sure what will happen with his new contract. No one knows if there will be an extension or not, after deGrom’s salary skyrocketed to $17 million for 2019 in arbitration. It is impossible to believe that this will not be worked out to the satisfaction of both sides, and for a long time. The greatest concern for Mets fans last season, at least once the ceiling began to cave in on the Mets in June, was that the team might trade deGrom at the non-waiver Trade Deadline, and get a boatload of talent in return.

They did not. deGrom wasn’t supposed to be this good. He wasn’t supposed to be the ace. He didn’t make the switch from shortstop to pitcher until he was a junior in college. deGrom has already undergone Tommy John surgery in his career. Then came the season when it felt as if he was all the Mets had. His team is expected to be better this season. You have to wonder how deGrom can be better, too.