Jacob deGrom: Baseball’s Ultimate Cinderella Story

Jacob deGrom sat in the Stetson dugout at the start of his junior season, pondering his next move. Baseball clearly wasn’t it. His confidence was shot. He was a .250 college hitter with zero career home runs, known more for his strong infield arm than anything else. The only time he was ever asked to pitch was his freshman season—he pitched one inning and gave up three runs. The only thing he seemed to be good at was throwing parties for the team after games.

What went wrong? Jacob grew up a solid hitter with exceptional defensive abilities, particularly at third base. It was why he was asked to play travel league baseball, where the best of the best went to compete, and where he led the American Legion Post 6 team to a State Championship and earned the title American Legion Rookie of the Year.

And it was this exposure in travel leagues that launched his college baseball career, after catching the eye of Stetson University manager Pete Dunn in the tournament circuits. Dunn ultimately offered him a scholarship to play for Stetson, but from there, things went south, and now deGrom’s baseball future looked incredibly bleak.

“I think Jacob was ready to quit baseball,” Stetson teammate Kyle Maultbetsch said. “And I told him, ‘I don’t think you should do that. You’re a Division 1 athlete. If you hate it, that’s something different.’”

But DeGrom didn’t hate baseball—he hated pitching. At the start of his junior year, Stetson used him as an occasional reliever, and he dreaded it every time. It made him question where his baseball career was going, if it was going anywhere at all. 

Nick Pugliese played travel baseball with deGrom and could see his confidence dropping. Pugliese reached out to Rick Hall, their former travel league manager, and told him that deGrom was on the verge of quitting. It would be Hall who encouraged deGrom to keep grinding and not to give up. “You’ve got to keep going,” Hall reportedly told him. 

Those words stuck with deGrom, and he found himself repeatedly coming back to them when the Stetson coaches decided to shake things after starting the 2010 season 3-8, with seven straight losses. Their starting pitching was horrible, so manager Dunn and pitching coach Chris Roberts decided to try something new. They were going to experiment with deGrom as a starting pitcher.

“He was such an outstanding shortstop—great range and great arm,” Dunn said. “We were 12, 13 games into the season, and our starting weekend rotation wasn't where it needed to be… I said, 'Guys, our best arm is wasting away at shortstop.'”

It turned out to be one of the most brilliant moves Dunn ever made. While deGrom’s statistics that year weren’t fantastic, his mechanics and velocity couldn’t be ignored. Mets scout Les Parker would watch Stetson games from time to time and had all but thrown out his notes on deGrom because he figured he was a waste of time. But when he finally saw deGrom pitch, he re-opened his file and immediately contacted the Mets front office. When the front office told Parker, “I thought you said he couldn’t hit,” Parker responded with, “He sure can pitch.”  

Thus began the journey of the Mets wooing deGrom. They watched him face off in an epic duel with Chris Sale in college, where deGrom hit his only career home run off Sale. “True story. He hit my bat,” deGrom jokingly said. While Sale got the better of him on the stat line, deGrom was the one who stole the headlines, showcasing his rocket arm and incredible demeanor on the mound. To this day, deGrom cites that game as the turning point of his career.

“I feel like it changed a lot,” deGrom said. “It seemed like every day I came in and had a letter [from a scout] in my locker. As that year went on, a lot of things started changing. I was like, “Maybe I’m a pitcher.” I didn’t really want to accept it yet…I figured I better start liking this.”

The Mets drafted deGrom in the ninth round, hoping to develop him in the minor leagues. Guys drafted that late don’t usually make it to the top level, and for a while, it looked like deGrom wouldn’t, either. An injury cost him all of 2011, and he went through a lot of turbulence in 2012. Some thought he wouldn’t make it after 2013, when he went a very average 7-7 with a 4.51 ERA. But the Mets kept moving him up, steadfast in their belief in him. They saw that “It” factor. 

Baseball’s ultimate Cinderella story was about to take off. A guy who nearly quit the sport was now climbing the ranks, proving everyone wrong. In 2014, after dominating in AAA Las Vegas, deGrom got the call to the big leagues—and he never looked back. What started as a longshot experiment at Stetson had turned into something special. A few years later, he was one of the most feared pitchers in baseball and was rewriting the record books, posting the lowest career ERAs of his era and racking up strikeouts at a historic pace.

DeGrom’s Early Life

DeGrom’s roots are in Florida’s Deep South. Born in the country town of DeLand, he was known more for mudding, hunting, and chasing alligators than he was for anything else. He was decent at baseball but was a basketball superstar. Most people thought he would be a standout college basketball athlete, and maybe even a professional, trading baskets with Lebron. But he didn’t love that idea–he wanted to play baseball.

Many people laughed at that idea. When he wrote down that his dream was to play professional baseball one day, his teacher handed him back the paper and told him to rewrite it with a more “realistic goal.” 

The reason deGrom was driven to pursue professional baseball was his father, Tony deGrom. He put a baseball in Jacob’s hand when he was just two years old and always pushed him to be his best. He taught him the philosophy of “Leave no doubt,” the three words that deGrom thinks about every time before taking the mound.

DeGrom’s Professional Career

DeGrom joined Stetson as a solid infielder and average hitter but left as an outstanding starting pitcher. He looked the part, growing to 6’3 and 180 pounds with a lean physique and long-flowing hair. His build and pitching mechanics played a big role in the Mets' decision to draft him. Instead of focusing on his stats, they saw raw potential—and plenty of it.

“At the time, we didn’t scout numbers,” Rudy Terrasas, Mets director of amateur scouting, said. “Yeah, they cross your mind, but we have a checklist of what we look for and want, and that’s where we went. At the end of the day, [deGrom] was a scout’s pick. We liked the player—he fit what we were looking for, and that’s why we took him.”

And their bet paid off. After being honored as Rookie of the Year in 2014, DeGrom helped get the Mets to the World Series in 2015, going 14-8 with a 2.85 ERA. They came up short to the Kansas City Royals, but deGrom’s career was just getting started. His 2018 season was unlike anything New York had ever seen before. He got rid of the long hair, worked incredibly hard in the offseason, and shot for the record books. He went on a 24-inning stretch early in the season without giving up a single run. 

Despite not getting a lot of offensive support that year, leading to only 10 wins, deGrom finished 2018 with an earth-shattering 1.70 ERA. It was the seventh-lowest ERA of any starting pitcher in history and earned him his first Cy Young Award. He took the award again in 2019, making him the 11th pitcher in history to take back-to-back awards. DeGrom struck out 269 batters in 2018 and a league-high 255 batters in 2019. 

From 2018 to 2021, deGrom had maybe the best run of any pitcher in history. If not for COVID and a horrible final start, he very well could have won a third consecutive Cy Young Award. In that shortened season, he finished 4-2 with a 2.38 ERA and finished third in the final voting. He also led the league with 104 strikeouts, which equated to 13.8 per nine innings.

Injuries have haunted deGrom’s career since joining the Texas Rangers in 2023, starting just nine games over the last two seasons. But he still has a lot left and is looking to prove himself with the Rangers in 2025.

DeGrom’s Legacy

DeGrom’s case for the Hall of Fame is strong—he’s one of just 11 pitchers to win back-to-back Cy Young Awards and has consistently rewritten the record books. In 2021, he became the only pitcher in MLB history to make 14 consecutive starts with an ERA under 1.00. That same season, he recorded 146 strikeouts to just 11 walks, putting him on pace to break the all-time record for strikeout-to-walk ratio before an injury cut his season short. After undergoing Tommy John surgery, his dominance was put on hold, but as of 2024, he still holds the all-time MLB record with a 5.41 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

DeGrom continued breaking records in 2022, becoming the first pitcher in MLB history to make 40 consecutive starts without allowing three runs in a game—a mark that stood for over a century. His career 2.52 ERA ranks second among all active pitchers, and his 10.97 strikeouts per nine innings place him fourth all-time.

A four-time All-Star and six-time top-10 Cy Young finalist, deGrom has already cemented himself as one of the greatest pitchers of his generation.

DeGrom’s story is one of belief in himself. He never quit when things looked bleak, and when people said he could never be a Major Leaguer, he only tried harder. In travel baseball, he treated every game as a stepping stone, knowing each opportunity could open the door to the next level. He carried that same mentality into college, making the most of every chance to improve and prove himself. Now, with a legacy defined by dominance on the mound, he may be on his way to the Hall of Fame.

Young players can learn a lot from deGrom’s perseverance, never-quit attitude, and overall sportsmanship. His teammates and coaches always speak highly of him, citing his ability to bring a team together. It’s partly due to his personality—deGrom has a knack for lightening the mood and making everyone feel like they belong. And coaches who've worked with him often say he’s one of the easiest players to coach.

“He’s a guy that, if you’re a dad, you’d just love to have as a kid,” Rick Hall said of deGrom.