Rangers' Jacob DeGrom: Familiar environs, unfamiliar run support

Jacob deGrom spent nine years calling Citi Field home, so it had to feel strange Friday night to warm up in the outfield while wearing a gray uniform with the giant block letters TEXAS across his chest.

At 6:45 p.m., high above his head, the memories came rushing back, displayed on the massive videoboard for the entire ballpark to savor all over again. Whether it was the shaggy-haired deGrom or the clean-cut Jake, the common thread was dominance, the strikeouts piling up with each passing frame.

As those fantastic memories began to fade, the closing of deGrom’s two-Cy Young Award stay in Flushing, the opening chords of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Simple Man” again blared over the Citi Field loudspeakers.

And the crowd cheered for their former hero, prompting deGrom to pause his throwing session and tip his cap to the adoring fans.

Finally, there was one last message — a “Welcome Back Jacob” — posted with deGrom outfitted in his old Mets uniform.

“I had to look down and gather myself,” he said of riding out the emotional surge. “That was really cool. This is where it all started, and then coming back here, I thought it was going to be a very special day. So thankful to the Mets for playing that.”

The video hit deGrom much harder than the Mets did, as he allowed three runs in seven innings to lead the Rangers to an 8-3 victory before a crowd of 41,040 that surely missed their former ace. But as much as deGrom got lost in that pregame time warp, caught between his Mets’ past  and Rangers present, it didn’t take long for him to realize how different his life is now.

When deGrom finally climbed the mound Friday night, the same pitcher who lived on scraps of run support as a Met already had a 6-0 lead. As unfamiliar as that was, everything else about Citi Field had sort of a homecoming vibe despite the fact that he last pitched here in 2022, when he outdueled the Padres’ Blake Snell for the Mets’ only victory of that NL Wild Card Series.

“When I went out there, honestly, the mound felt the exact same,” deGrom said. “So it was obviously good memories.”

No wonder. This is where he had been nearly unhittable in a Mets uniform. His 2.12 ERA over 696 2⁄3 innings at Citi Field was the second-lowest for any pitcher at any ballpark (minimum 500 innings), with only Sandy Koufax’s 1.37 ERA at Dodger Stadium standing above him.

Jacob deGrom of the @Rangers has a 2.12 ERA in 696.2 career IP at Citi Field and now makes his 1st start there since leaving the @Mets in 2022.

The only pitcher in the live-ball era (since 1920) with a lower ERA at any park (min. 500 IP) is Sandy Koufax - 1.37 at Dodger Stadium. pic.twitter.com/Ii0A3L6L67

— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) September 12, 2025

On Friday night, it wasn’t vintage Mets-era deGrom. He’s not the same guy who used to start off flexing nothing but triple-digit fastballs for the first time through the lineup. A second Tommy John surgery  took away some of that pure gas. But deGrom has plenty left in the tank. He still possesses one of the game’s top fastballs, which averaged 98.0 mph Friday and maxed out at 99.6.

After anxiously waiting out   Jonah Tong’s 40-pitch first inning, which took more than 20 minutes, deGrom dusted the Mets on six pitches. He retired six of seven before Francisco Alvarez smacked a leadoff homer in the third, then allowed a pair of sacrifice flies.

That’s where deGrom drew the line, not with velocity but skill. He retired the next 15 straight before calling it a night after seven innings and 88 pitches. And in a very un-deGrom stat line, he struck out only two without a walk.

“A lot of early contact, so that let me go a little bit deeper in the game,” he said. “We’ve been monitoring innings and pitch counts.”

In other words, the Rangers are trying to protect  their $185 million investment, as deGrom, 37, is wrapping up Season 3 of his five-year deal.

He doesn’t sound close to finished, either. For a guy who totaled only 35 starts in his previous four seasons, deGrom said he plans to keep pitching into his 40s. That means another contract somewhere. It also would greatly enhance his chances of getting to Cooperstown.

“Maybe, we’ll see,” he said. “My goal is to just keep it going.”

DeGrom technically was the enemy Friday night, but it’s impossible for the Mets to view him that way because of his importance to the franchise during some of the darkest periods.

“That’s his mound out there,” Pete Alonso said before Friday’s game. “He’s obviously meant so much to this organization. If he finishes out his career the way he wants to, he’s a no-doubt Hall of Famer. That’s probably some of the best stuff this game has ever seen.”

And if not Cooperstown, does deGrom ever think about having his No. 48 retired at Citi Field so he’ll never leave again?

“That’s not really my decision,” he said. “It would be a huge honor. Every time I took this mound for the Mets, I felt like I left it all out there. There were obviously some times I got injured, but you can’t really control that. When I was on that mound, I felt like I left it all on the field.”

He did it again Friday night, and this time he succeeded in making the Mets even more miserable.