Jacob deGrom is a Texas Ranger now, and his bank account and the team's watchability are better for it.

Whether the Rangers will do as much winning as they want around deGrom is a whole 'nother question. And in a related story, there's now a question about what the Mets will do with the deGrom-sized hole in their starting rotation.

Let's grant that the Mets didn't let deGrom go without a fight. Or, more accurately, a solid offer. Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports it was in the range of three years and $120 million. Had the 34-year-old accepted, the $40 million average annual value of his deal would have ranked behind only fellow multi-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer.

But, well, can you blame deGrom for accepting the Rangers' five-year, $185 million offer?

No. No you cannot. Beyond being more than what the Mets—who reportedly never got to make a final offer—offered deGrom, it's substantially more than even the most generous contract forecasters had pegged him for.

deGrom Is the Big Winner Here

It's appropriate that deGrom would end his first foray into free agency by blowing away expectations. Story of his career, as it were.

Far from a can't-miss prospect, deGrom was only a ninth-round pick out of Stetson University in 2010. His pro career got off to an inauspicious start when he underwent Tommy John surgery shortly thereafter, and at no point between then and his major league debut in May of 2014 was he considered a top-100 talent.

We all know what happened next, of course.

National League Rookie of the Year in 2014. All-Star and postseason sensation in 2015. Then continued excellence in 2016 and 2017, followed by a transformation into "deGOAT" starting with the first of back-to-back Cy Young Award-winning seasons in 2018 and 2019.