Jacob deGrom Beats Out Gerrit Cole as Best Starting Pitcher in Baseball on MLB Network's List

MLB Network's Shredder is a yearly source of debate, as it pertains to their rankings of the best players in baseball at each position. Starting pitcher will be no exception, as neither Justin Verlander, nor New York Yankees record signing Gerrit Cole, were named the top starter in MLB.

That honor goes to New York Mets starter Jacob deGrom, who ended 2019 by winning his second consecutive Cy Young award while leading baseball in several key sabermetric and traditional stats.

In 2018, deGrom won his first Cy Young award after posting a microscopic 1.70 ERA and striking out 269 batters. While his ERA jumped to 2.43 last year, he led the NL with 255 Ks and won his second Cy Young in a row.

The fact that he's done it on an average Mets team with less support than an Astros team built to win championships makes his singular dominance even more amazing.

His Mets haven't been giving him much run support, and failed to win many games for him in 2019, but deGrom has persevered to pull off one of the most dominant two-year stretches we've seen from a pitcher this millennium. As deGrom heads into his age-32 season, expectations can and will remain sky high.