NEW YORK -- Three full weeks ago, on the day this year's Subway Series was scheduled to conclude, Aaron Boone fielded a clever question. What were the chances, Boone was asked, he planned to start Jacob deGrom when the Yankees made up their postponed game against the Mets? The non-waiver Trade Deadline just a week away at the time, rumors swirled around idea of the Mets moving deGrom, maybe even to their crosstown rivals.
That hypothetical -- tantalizing as it was at the time -- of course, never became reality. The Mets held on to deGrom on July 31, while the Yankees pivoted to other options, acquiring several less-heralded pitchers to pad their rotation from the back end up.