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The New York Mets have been near the bottom of the NL East standings for most of the season. The batters aren’t driving in runs; and without run support, the pitchers can’t win games. However, there is one Mets pitcher who is worth owning in fantasy. His name is Jacob deGrom.
deGrom should be in Rookie of the Year considerations, but his win-loss records isn’t doing him any favors. Despite having a 4-5 record, deGrom has a 3.01 ERA, 1.29 WHIP, 79:29 K/BB ratio in 80.2 innings. He has the best ERA of all current Mets starters.
He has had a nice stretch of starts in July. In his last three starts, he pitched seven innings, gave up one run or less, struck out 26 batters and won all three games.
There is worry that deGrom could be skipped later in the year, just to keep his inning totals down. He may be shut down to keep him between 160-170 innings, but fantasy owners shouldn’t worry about that until later in the season.
deGrom is still widely available. In ESPN.com leagues, he is owned in just a shade under 50 percent of leagues. With some starting pitchers struggling as of late or dealing with injuries, deGrom is a cheap option to fill in as a SP4.
His next start comes against the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday. deGrom will have is work cut out for him as the Brewers are one of the better hitting teams in baseball. The Brewers rank 11th in average, sixth in home runs and seventh in RBI. Since the beginning of June, the Brewers have scored 212 runs.
deGrom has shown that he is worth owning in most fantasy leagues. If you have a disposable pitcher on your roster or one too many hitters, make room for deGrom. He is a nice second-half sleeper.
Bill Pivetz is a fantasy sports writer for Rant Sports. Follow him on Twitter @BPiv_Sports.
