Trio of former notable Mets pitchers start back-to-back-to-back for Rangers

This past week at Seattle’s T-Mobile Park, it was like a visit from the Ghosts of Mets’ Past, but this time — in breaking from Flushing’s often twisted tradition — the haunting didn’t feel so scary for the franchise.

Thanks to the Rangers, and particularly former Mets pitcher Chris Young, who was promoted Friday to the franchise’s president of baseball operations, we got three straight notable starts from pitchers who certainly piqued some interest in New York.

The first was Kumar Rocker, who was the Mets’ 10th overall pick out of Vanderbilt in 2021 but failed to sign with the team because of a dispute involving the health of his right elbow (he wound up having Tommy John surgery after the Rangers took him at No. 3 the following year).

Next up was Jacob deGrom, an oft-injured two-time Cy Young Award winner whom the Mets let walk to Texas on a five-year, $185 million deal, only for him to have Tommy John surgery after his first six starts in 2023.

Rounding out the trio was Max Scherzer, who waived his no-trade clause for the Mets to ship him to Texas at the 2023 deadline. He’s also been limited by a number of injuries (although he did get a second World Series ring last October).

So that’s one guaranteed Hall of Famer in Scherzer, another potential Cooperstown-bound ace in deGrom and then Rocker, twice a top 10 draft pick, all of whom could have been in the Mets’ current rotation.

And yet, in what can only be described in hindsight as a series of prescient front-office decisions, the Mets have motored along just fine without them (although Rocker does fit the profile for a future ace).

From a financial perspective, on a dollar-per-inning basis, this was some of the smarter maneuvering performed over on Seaver Way in recent memory — done by general managers with very short career stints at Citi Field.

While the defending World Series champs are playing out the string — the Rangers were six games under .500 (71-77) entering Saturday — the Mets entered their huge weekend series in Philly with a rotation that has excelled in the second half, ranked fifth in the majors in ERA (3.51) and second in innings pitched (294 2⁄3).

Overall, the Mets have three rotation members in Sean Manaea, Luis Severino and Jose Quintana who will exceed 30 starts this season and a fourth in David Peterson who will be over 20 despite coming back from hip surgery.

Also of note: The Mets are on the brink of the playoffs after getting only five innings from presumptive ace Kodai Senga coming into the year. And the total price tag of this Senga-less rotation? Approximately $47 million (including A’s trade import Paul Blackburn) — slightly over Scherzer’s $43.3 million for this year.

With all that in mind, here’s an update on those three former Mets, specifically for those who still wonder what might have been. Complete with the back story as a memory refresher, and the thinking behind why they became former Mets.

JACOB deGROM

The Mets’ parting with deGrom, fittingly, came between two lengthy injuries. There was the stress reaction in his right scapula, suffered during spring training, that limited him to 11 starts during his walk year in 2022. Then, after the Rangers jumped the market with a five-year, $185 million offer that deGrom accepted in the first week of December, deGrom lasted only six starts and 30 1⁄3 innings before needing the second Tommy John surgery of his career.

Going back even further, deGrom, 36, had made a total of 44 starts in the past four seasons before Friday’s return in Seattle, his first major-league start in 504 days. DeGrom’s fragility has become as much a part of his narrative as his supernatural pitching talent, and the Mets’ painful familiarity with the former made the split almost assured as free agency approached.

As for the next chapter, deGrom showed glimpses of his Cy Young Award self in the Rangers’ 5-4 loss to the Mariners. He opened in trademark fashion — firing 11 four-seam fastballs in his first 14 pitches, with a max of 98.7 mph — before going heavier with a slider that topped out at 91.6 mph (seven whiffs on 17 swings).

DeGrom allowed four hits in 3 2⁄3 scoreless innings and, also typical of him, required 61 pitches to get those 11 outs.

“It’s big to get out and pitch in a major-league game so you don’t feel like you’re in rehab for two straight years,” deGrom told reporters. “Now it’s just trying to get things back where they were, executing pitches like I normally do. That’s the goal for the next two is to really dial things in, and then you can treat it like a normal offseason and get ready to play next year.”

DeGrom spent the majority of his first two Texas seasons doing rehab, at a cost of $70 million, and what will come out to roughly $1.6 million per inning for the Rangers. It didn’t hurt them last year as they won the franchise’s first World Series title, and Texas will spend these next two weeks just tuning up for 2025 anyway.

As for the Mets in their post-Jake era, they signed Justin Verlander to a two-year, $86.6 million deal a week after deGrom bolted to the Rangers. Verlander made only 16 starts for them (6-5, 3.15 ERA) before he, like Scherzer, was shipped out at the ’23 deadline for two Astros prospects and salary relief. Money-wise, the Mets still paid $35 million of Verlander’s remaining $58 million in order to get back top prospects Drew Gilbert and Ryan Clifford. But they did escape their half ($17.5M) of Verlander’s $35 million vesting option for next season, as he’ll fall well short of the 140 innings needed (he’s currently at 74 2⁄3).

KUMAR ROCKER

Rocker’s journey to the T-Mobile mound Thursday night certainly took longer than everyone had first anticipated when the Mets drafted the Scott Boras client in 2021. But he ultimately made his MLB debut in a Rangers uniform, earning the promotion after dominating the minors with 55 strikeouts in 36 2⁄3 innings over nine starts and one relief appearance (across three levels).

Against Seattle, Rocker, 24, struck out seven in four innings and allowed three hits, including his lone run on a homer by Justin Turner. He threw only 74 pitches but did get 17 swings and misses, including 13 on his signature slider. His four-seam fastball maxed out at 97.6 mph.

“That was one of the more impressive debuts I’ve seen,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy told reporters.

Rocker’s dazzling arsenal is enough to make any team envious, and to think the Mets were on the verge of having him in their organization — which has looked a bit thin on starters lately — suggests it was a major blunder cutting him loose. But you also have to put the decision in context. The ’21 draft was the first under new owner Steve Cohen, and interim GM Zack Scott had been on the job for only five months. The front-office operation still was very green, and when a red flag surfaced on Rocker’s physical, no one wanted to wear the failure of what potentially could develop into a PR disaster for a franchise supposedly on the rebound.

At the time, Boras insisted that Rocker’s medicals were fine, but the Mets reportedly pulled back their $6 million offer. Eleven months later, with Rocker pitching in the Rangers’ farm system, he suffered a UCL tear that required Tommy John surgery. The next year, with the 11th pick gained by dumping Rocker, the Mets selected catcher Kevin Parada, who has plunged to No. 25 on the system’s prospect list, according to MLB Pipeline.

MAX SCHERZER

Scherzer following deGrom this weekend is the reverse of how they aligned back in Flushing, where the two were last together for the Wild Card Series loss to the Padres that ended the 2022 season at Citi Field.

As for Scherzer’s legacy in Flushing, it was relatively brief, but for at least one season, fairly effective. And just his signing alone — on Dec. 1, 2021, right before the winter lockout — helped put both Cohen and the Mets on the map as serious players in the free-agent market. When Cohen gave Scherzer that record three-year, $130 million contract, it confirmed a new era in Flushing and a stunning departure from the frugal late years of the Wilpon stewardship.

But Scherzer made it only halfway through his Mets deal, negotiating with Cohen again to exit as part of the ’23 deadline fire sale. Turns out, Cohen and then-GM Billy Eppler got the much better end of that swap. Scherzer finished his Flushing tour at a very respectable 20-9 with a 3.02 ERA in 42 starts, but the Mets got out at the right time, as the 40-year-old Scherzer has been plagued by injuries since arriving in Texas.

After the ’23 trade, Scherzer went 4-2 with a 3.20 ERA in only eight starts for the Rangers, as he was shut down in mid-September with a shoulder strain and missed the entire playoff run. Scherzer followed that with back surgery for a herniated disc in December, and just when he was about to return in May, he was delayed again by thumb inflammation.

Once Scherzer did return to the rotation, he again made eight starts (2-3, 3.89 ERA) for a total of only 39 1⁄3 innings, then was sidelined because of shoulder fatigue. Before Saturday night’s return in Seattle, Scherzer had made a total of 16 starts in almost 1 1⁄2 seasons for the Rangers, with a 3.52 ERA.

What did the Mets get in return for those 16 Scherzer starts? They got $22.5 million back from the Rangers on the sunk cost of Scherzer’s contract, along with prospect Luisangel Acuna, who was called up and went 2-for-4 in his major-league debut in Saturday’s 6-4 loss to Philadelphia.

By David Lennon

dave.lennon@newsday.comDPLennon

David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.