What is it that we want from our athletes?



Mainly wins, if we’re being honest. We want our passion and our devotion to be repaid in the standings and, at least once in a while, with a championship.



In 2018, Jacob deGrom could not provide fans what they desire most. His Mets did not win a championship. They didn’t win a division, they didn’t win as many games as they lost, they didn’t even win as many games as they lost when he personally started. In that sense, deGrom’s 2018 season could register as an abject failure.



And yet, deGrom’s season is obviously more than that. In many ways, his momentous 2018 campaign — one of the greatest single-season performances by a Met in franchise history — is heightened rather than diminished by the failures of those around him. His season was less about high achievement — a Cy Young Award, a 1.70 ERA and 269 strikeouts — than about the obstacles that forge it in...