There is still a wait and see in my book in what happens performance wise between the two. First, I will say the past two years have put these two guys up on top of the pitching mountain so all of this is kind of stupid to argue going into the next couple of years. Met's and Yankee's most likely have the two best pitchers in baseball.
Why I have a bit of a wait and see. While I recognize the arguement of the DH in the American league, it has made the difference of .29 runs scored per game in advantage of american league since 1997. The strange thing is how much better Cole got once he got to the AL and it happens to be on the same team that at the same time made Verlander Clemons 2.0 . I need to see Cole keep it up elsewhere. And it wasnt just a minor change. He was a 8.4 K per 9 inning guy that went to 13 k per 9. 8.6 H per 9 to 6.2 H per 9...And it magnifies because he supposedly got this drastically better in the superior hitting league.
And BTW- outside of K's - his last 2 years are nowhere close to deGrom who pitched to a 2.05 era to Coles 2.69 . That IS NOT do to a DH.
Now- again, both teams have amazing guys going into 202.
As for contracts- yes, deGrom is older but during is ages of 31-35 - Met's will pay him an average of $32mil per year. And contract over. Cole, on the other hand- during his age of 31-35, Yankees will pay him an average of $36mil and still be on the hoof for 2 more years.
You guys did what you did have to do. You paid a price for it and there are more questions about Cole than deGrom.
I would take both but I would take deGrom and his contract and past performance over Cole, any day of the week.