Jacob deGrom’s teammates refute Twitter cheating accusation originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom‘s teammates came to his defense on Monday after a Dodgers fan on Twitter accused him of cheating.
“Jacob Decheats or since it’s not Bauer or Cole, we don’t care? Lol,” the post read.
DeGrom leads the majors by a sizable margin with a 0.62 ERA this season, and he’s led the National League in strikeouts the past three seasons. The two-time Cy Young winner threw 11 strikeouts in seven innings against the Padres on Saturday night, allowing just three hits. But with MLB owners announcing plans to ramp up efforts to combat pitchers using foreign substances to get a better grip on their throws, deGrom appears to have been called out unjustly on social media.
At least, that’s what the support from his teammates would lead you to believe.
Mets catcher Tomas Nido was the one who led the charge, writing “I promise you he doesn’t use anything. If he did they would be lucky to even foul tip the ball.” He even made sure to tag fellow catcher James McCann in the post.
“I can confirm. The [goat emoji] is substance-free. Can you imagine if he did use something?” McCann wrote, moving the thread right on to pitcher Marcus Stroman.
“I can confirm as well! deGrom is the goat goat!” Stroman replied before continuing the CC thread to bullpen mate Taijuan Walker.
“I can confirm too!! The goat doesn’t need it!!” Walker wrote before CC’ing Trevor May.
“I can also confirm, he’s just way better than all of us. Confirm?” May wrote before tagging outfielder Kevin Pillar.
Pillar’s explanation made perhaps the most sense of the group when defending his superstar ace, arguing it’s more likely that he’s just probably not from planet Earth. DeGrom’s consistent defiance of the law of physics with his utter domination could support that theory.
“I’d bet my paycheck on it that he doesn’t use anything. He might be from a different planet though,” Pillar wrote before making sure Mets owner Steve Cohen saw all the commotion.