deGrom set to make return to Queens, face Mets on Friday

ARLINGTON -- For the first time since he signed with the Rangers as a free agent after the 2022 season, Jacob deGrom is set to face the team he left behind.

Texas has listed the 37-year-old deGrom as the probable starter for Friday night’s game against the Mets at Citi Field, which will kick off a three-game Interleague series between a pair of clubs in the thick of the Wild Card race in their respective leagues. The Mets are expected to counter with 22-year-old rookie Jonah Tong, their No. 4 prospect per MLB Pipeline, who will be making his third career start.

“I’m excited to go and pitch at Citi Field,” deGrom said on Wednesday in Arlington. “That’s where my career started, so it holds a special place in my heart. It’ll be fun. I’m looking forward to it. I think their alumni game is going on there, too, so a lot of guys that I came up with will be there as well. It’ll be an all-around cool experience.

“All these games for us are very important. Same for them with the spot they’re in. It's going to be fun. We've got to win, they've got to win. It’s going to be a playoff atmosphere.”

deGrom spent his first nine seasons with the Mets and solidified himself as one of the greatest pitchers in franchise history after being selected by New York in the ninth round of the 2010 MLB Draft. Though his later years with the club were marred by injuries, deGrom made four All-Star teams, won the 2014 National League Rookie of the Year Award and earned ’18 and ’19 NL Cy Young Award honors during his Mets tenure.

“He was the main event,” said one of deGrom’s longtime teammates, Mets outfielder Brandon Nimmo. “When people would come and watch the Mets, they would want to see it when Jacob deGrom was pitching. I got to experience it for so many years and absolutely enjoyed it and look on those times fondly. So I hope that the environment is absolutely electric for it.”

deGrom made just nine starts combined during the first two seasons of his five-year, $185 million deal with the Rangers, but he has returned to form in his first full season back from Tommy John surgery. Over 27 starts, he owns a 2.78 ERA with 169 strikeouts and 35 walks in 155 2/3 innings.

That inning total is his highest since his Cy Young Award-winning 2019 season with the Mets -- during which he crossed the 200-inning threshold for the third consecutive year.

The right-hander returned to New York earlier this season when he started for the Rangers at Yankee Stadium on May 21, but this will be his first time pitching at Citi Field as a visitor. Texas last faced the Mets at Citi Field in 2023, but deGrom was on the injured list as he recovered from the Tommy John surgery he underwent that June.

deGrom has a lifetime 2.12 ERA over 109 regular-season starts in Flushing.

“There might be a little bit more [nerves] throwing there,” deGrom said. “I’ve pitched a lot there. Mets fans were always good to me. Taking the mound in front of that crowd was always a fun experience. Now I’m on the other side doing it. It’ll be interesting to see how it goes. Every time I take the mound, I enjoy it. Again, Mets fans were always good to me, so going out there will be fun.”

“I wonder if they’ll play [Lynyrd Skynyrd’s] ‘Simple Man’ for him when he comes up,” Nimmo said. “That was always really cool. When that song came on, you knew Jake was going to take the mound. It’s going to be cool to see him back there.”

The fact that both New York and Texas are fighting for Wild Card spots should only enhance the atmosphere. At some point on their final homestand, the Mets expect to reach 3 million fans in total attendance for the first time since 2009. Their players anticipate deGrom being juiced up as a result.

“When No. 48 takes the mound at Citi Field,” added Pete Alonso, “in my mind, that’s his mound.”

Most of deGrom’s former Mets teammates, however, have never faced him in a competitive atmosphere outside of live batting practice in the early days of Spring Training. Even in that context, it has been several years since they’ve seen his pitches in person.

“Hopefully, it goes better than my Spring Training at-bats went,” Alonso said, laughing. “Obviously, he’s nasty. But we’ll have something for him.”