Fantasy Baseball: Which Mets Pitcher Is the Best Bet for a Rebound?

Jacob deGrom

Why He Should Be on Your Roster

Like his teammates, deGrom has shown he can be dominant when healthy. He debuted in 2014 and accrued just 140.1 innings (22 starts) but turned that into 3.5 fWAR and the National League Rookie of the Year award.

Although he technically broke out the year before, deGrom put together his best performance to-date in 2015, with career bests in wins (15), ERA (2.54), innings pitched (191), WHIP (0.98), K/9 (9.7), BB/9 (1.8) and fWAR (5.3). That earned him his first All-Star selection while also placing seventh in NL Cy Young voting.

As we touched on earlier, his 2016 campaign was cut short due to injury, but he was still effective, even if his record (7-8) didn't show that. Outside of missing a couple starts in April because of injury and personal reasons, he took the ball just about every fifth day before his final start on September 1.

DeGrom threw at least 6 innings in an appearance on 16 occasions, which were all quality starts.

Why There's Reason for Caution

There should be caution for any pitcher coming off season-ending surgery -- especially when elbows are involved.

However, general manager Sandy Alderson stressed last fall that the issue with deGrom was with the nerve, not his surgically-repaired ligament. This issue is actually fairly common for hurlers who have had Tommy John surgery, and despite a three-month recovery, it wasn't considered a significant procedure.

With all of that said, it certainly seems as if deGrom is in the best situation for production moving forward -- he has the past workload as a foundation to last all year, he doesn't have a history of serious ailments as a big leaguer and although his 2016 injury ended his season, it wasn't one that involves a bunch of unknowns.

Harvey, Matz and deGrom could all easily rebound and be fantasy studs in 2017, but there's a level of risk involved with each. When trying to find the best bet to rebound this season, deGrom should be the first one on your radar.

That's reflected in the National Fantasy Baseball Championship (NFBC) average draft position data. DeGrom is currently the 18th starting pitcher to go off the board, while Harvey is the 35th hurler and Matz is 41st.