After all these years Jacob deGrom has finally reached his limit — the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. The Baseball Writers Association voted him in and he was inducted today.
During his induction speech deGrom acknowledged he was gifted with a strong arm, but gave much credit to his pitching coaches, managers and teammates for helping him develop his skills. “I was fortunate to play with a lot of good people during my career.”
One of his pitching coaches assessed his talent this way: “Jacob‘s delivery always has been smooth, loose, a lot of leg drive, everything going forward at the same time. It’s the type of delivery that allows a guy to hold up year-after-year. One of the best all-time breaking balls, a good fastball, hard work and outstanding mechanics got him to the Hall of Fame.”
In his career deGrom appeared in 299 games, fanned 2247 batters and walked 459 in 1962.2 innings of work. His lifetime won-lost record was 128 victories and 77 defeats with a 2.97 ERA, and opposing hitters batted .224 against him.
deGrom was 36 when he retired from baseball.