Mets' Buck Showalter compares Jacob deGrom to Michael Phelps

New York Mets manager Buck Showalter has compared ace Jacob deGrom to an all-time great athlete. 

"People came to see [deGrom] pitch and expected guys to not even put the ball into play against him," Showalter said of the 34-year-old while speaking with Mike Lupica of the MLB website. "Then he’d make great hitters miss by a foot. And when he was at his best, sometimes that was just a level that was just different from everybody else’s level. 

"It’s like watching a pitcher with Michael Phelps' body. I’ve said this before, but he’s a closer who starts. He’s Edwin Diaz as a starter."

Michelle R. Martinelli of USA Today's For The Win noted back in February that Phelps, the retired American swimmer, holds the records for the most Olympic medals won by a single athlete with 28 and for the most gold medals won with 23. The official Olympics website names Phelps as "arguably the greatest Olympian ever." 

Meanwhile, Showalter joined the Mets last December and, thus, spent only one season working with deGrom before the right-hander opted out of his contract on Nov. 7. 

"For me," Showalter explained about witnessing deGrom in person, "it was like, 'OK, I get it. I understand what everybody’s been talking about.' The only way to describe it is that I watched even great hitters walk back to the dugout in awe." 

The two-time National League Cy Young Award winner didn't make his 2022 MLB season debut until August due to a stress reaction in the scapula of his pitching shoulder. In 11 starts, deGrom posted a 5-4 record with a 3.08 ERA and 102 strikeouts across 64.1 innings of work. 

Anthony DiComo of the Mets' website mentioned Tuesday that deGrom rejected the one-year qualifying offer extended by the club. Varying reports have linked deGrom with a potential return to the Amazins but also with the Atlanta Braves and Texas Rangers.