Five Losers of MLB’s Offseason

Pitchers and catchers officially begin their preseason workouts this week, ending an eventful offseason where many teams improved their rosters heading into 2020.

For all the winners of the winters, though, there are the offseason losers. These are the clubs that failed to make the necessary roster upgrades, the free agents who miscalculated their values and the aging players in the twilight of their careers whose services are no longer desired. Below are the five biggest losers this winter.

So, any losers who you’d like to add to the list?

With two Cy Young Awards, Jacob deGrom on Cooperstown path

Maybe, just maybe, we can start taking educated guesses on how this storybook tale of Jacob deGrom’s rise from college shortstop to elite ace will end.

Having won consecutive NL Cy Young awards by claiming 29 of 30 first-place votes, deGrom is now one of 11 pitchers to ever win consecutive Cy Young awards.

Next season he’ll have his chance to become just the third pitcher to ever win three in a row.

He’s already one of the greatest pitchers in Mets history, an organization fueled by great pitching. And these awards cements him as one of his generation’s most dominant pitchers.

Bit of an overbid for someone who has only pitched for six years, isn’t it?

deGrom repeats, JV edges Cole for Cy honors

It was a night for second helpings—a serving long-awaited for one Cooperstown-caliber arm and not-so-long-awaited for the Cy Young’s rare repeat customer.

The Astros’ Justin Verlander and the Mets’ Jacob deGrom are the 2019 winners of the American League and National League Cy Young Awards, as announced on Wednesday night on MLB Network by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. And these two-time winners of baseball’s biggest pitching prize took two very different paths to this point.

For Verlander, who won the 2011 AL Cy Young with the Tigers, this award is well-deserved relief after three second-place finishes in 2012, 2016 and 2018. This time, he had to edge out his own equally deserving teammate, Gerrit Cole, to win one of the more interesting Cy races in recent memory.

“It’s just truly incredible,” Verlander said on the MLB Network announcement show. “2011 was just a magical season. I didn’t have to grind through much at that point in time. A lot has changed since then, personally and professionally. It just makes it that much sweeter. Having come so close a couple other times, all that this means, it’s just such an incredible feeling.”

Citi Field duel shows why the NL Cy Young is a two-horse race

NEW YORK—As the baseball season draws to a close, awards debates tend to draw life from the players that can perform their best in a stretch run.

A crowd of nearly 40,000 was treated to just that Saturday night at Citi Field.

“That’s kind of what I was hoping for,” Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said after his team fell to the New York Mets, 3-0.

Hyun-Jin Ryu and Jacob deGrom worked in lockstep throughout the evening. Whether they care to admit it, Ryu and deGrom were bidding against each other for the National League Cy Young Award.

Max Scherzer, meanwhile, wonders if it was that he was entered into a competing race and couldn’t make this one, or that no one remembered to pay the fee to enter him into the race.

LEADING OFF: DeGrom-Scherzer, Encarnación set, Dorian effect

PAIR OF ACES

It’s a marquee matchup when Jacob deGrom starts for the Mets against Max Scherzer at Nationals Park. Washington leads the NL wild-card race, New York is chasing.

DeGrom (8-8, 2.66 ERA) is 1-0 with a 0.53 ERA in three games vs. the Nationals this season. Scherzer (9-5. 2.46) has a 3.24 ERA in 8 1/3 innings over two starts since returning from the injured list last month.

Mets catcher Wilson Ramos owns a 25-game hitting streak, the longest active string in the majors.

Mind you, with modern pitcher usage being what it is, anti-climax seems the most likely option….

LEADING OFF: DeGrom aims to right Mets, Ryu tries to rebound

DOING IT ALL

Jacob deGrom (8-7, 2.56 ERA) tries to stop the Mets’ five-game skid when he faces Cubs lefty Jon Lester (10-9, 4.49) in a series finale between playoff hopefuls at Citi Field. Last year’s NL Cy Young Award winner, deGrom has pitched himself right back into contention this season and leads the league with 207 strikeouts. He fanned 13 over seven innings and homered last time out but the Mets lost 2-1 to Atlanta in 14 innings. The right-hander is the first pitcher since at least 1900 to homer and strike out 13 or more in the same game twice in one season.

BUMP IN THE ROAD

Major league ERA leader Hyun-Jin Ryu (12-4) looks to rebound from a rough outing when he pitches for the NL West-leading Dodgers at Arizona. The All-Star lefty gave up a grand slam to Didi Gregorius last Friday and was tagged by the New York Yankees for a career high-tying seven runs and nine hits in 4 1/3 innings — his shortest outing since June 28. It was Ryu’s second consecutive loss, and his ERA jumped from 1.64 to 2.00.

The Mets being what they are, is this something deGrom has a chance at?