The question seems ludicrous now: What do you think the Mets could get for Jacob deGrom?

At the time, however, John Bitzer wasn’t alone in asking what a Cy Young winner who had yet to sign a contract extension with his team in 2019 might bring the Mets back in trade.

“My friends were, like, ‘Aaron Judge,'” Bitzer recalled in a recent phone conversation with Sports+.

“What are you basing that on?” he asked the buddies who had joined him at a New Jersey bar that night.