His major league debut was more than two months away, but New York Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard committed a cardinal sin during spring training 2015, at least in the eyes of team captain David Wright and veteran reliever Bobby Parnell.
According to several reports then, Syndergaard was having lunch in the comfort of the air-conditioned clubhouse in Port St. Lucie during an early March intrasquad scrimmage when Wright and Parnell happened upon the scene. Wright took a firm, but diplomatic approach and instructed the 22-year-old rookie pitcher to join his teammates in the dugout. Parnell, however, was more blunt, and picked up Syndergaard’s food plate before tossing it in the trash.
“If a kid's not playing nice, you take his toys away,” Parnell said, according to a Newsday report.
It was a tough-love lesson at the beginning of Syndergaard’s Mets tenure, and since then, the power right-hander’s career arc in Flushing has been equal parts electric and head-scratching, while big chunks of the six-and-a-half year stretch have been marked by injury. Syndergaard is currently recovering from Tommy John surgery, which he underwent in March 2020, but the Mets announced this past week he would be shut down for at least a month and a half after being diagnosed with right elbow inflammation. Syndergaard, 28, had been removed from a second rehab start after throwing only one inning.
Now the big questions for the Mets are whether Syndergaard can return to the mound in 2021 and help the team, or even if he doesn’t pitch this season, would the club and owner Steve Cohen be wise to spend big on a still-in-his-prime Syndergaard when the pitcher becomes a free agent after this season?
“The most important thing for Syndergaard is his health. He needs to show that he’s healthy and still capable, and that he can withstand the strain of the job,” said Dan Duquette, a former general manager of the Montreal Expos, Boston Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles. “But there will still be significant interest this winter, given his past capability and every team’s need for pitching. It’s just the last couple years, he hasn’t stayed healthy.”
Prior to Tommy John surgery, Syndergaard has dealt with various ailments in his big-league career, twice landing on the Disabled List (now called the Injured List) in 2018, for a strained ligament in his right index finger, and for contracting hand, foot and mouth disease. In 2017, Syndergaard refused to have a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan after he was scratched from a late April start with biceps soreness. The refusal rankled the front office, and three days later, Syndergaard tore his right lat in a start against the Washington Nationals. He remained on the DL until late September.
“I can't tie him down and throw him in the tube,” then Mets GM Sandy Alderson (now the team president) told reporters, referring to Syndergaard’s refusing the initial MRI.
For all of Syndergaard’s health setbacks, however, he has sparkled on the game’s biggest stage, earning the only Mets’ win during the 2015 World Series against the Kansas City Royals. Nicknamed “Thor,” Syndergaard had a memorable opening to that Game 3, buzzing Royals leadoff hitter Alcides Escobar with some high heat in the game’s first at-bat. The last time the Mets made the playoffs, in 2016, Syndergaard started the National League wild-card game against the San Francisco Giants and waged an epic pitching duel against Madison Bumgarner. Syndergaard pitched seven shutout innings, although the Mets lost, 3-0.
Syndergaard’s blazing fastball has been his signature, but Duquette said that if the right-hander wants to prolong his career, he may have to redefine his pitching repertoire down the road, much like Hall of Famers Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux did later in their careers.
“Glavine and Maddux changed their styles to benefit and extend their careers,” said Duquette. “Syndergaard, he’s a huge man, and it’s incredible the amount of energy he can generate with his physique. But with that extreme force, he’s got to be able to decelerate. He’s so strong and gifted, but some of the velocity — it’s not sustainable over a long period. That’s probably the big question for him. Can he return, still do the job, repeat that delivery and stay healthy?
“A lot of veteran pitcher reinvent themselves along the way.”
Former Mets GM Jim Duquette, Dan’s cousin, agreed that there will probably be no shortage of interest in Syndergaard this winter, but at the same time, teams might be cautious with extending a long-term offer, given the pitcher’s medical history.
“With the Mets, they already know the level of risk, and they’re hoping to see (Syndergaard) pitch at some point, hopefully at the end of the year,” said Jim Duquette, now an SNY-network analyst and the host of “Power Alley” on Sirius XM’s MLB Network Radio. “But if he doesn’t pitch this year, he’s likely looking at a large sum of money on a one-year basis, kind of like (the Yankees’) Corey Kluber got with the one-year, $11 million deal.”
Kluber, a two-time Cy Young Award winner, only pitched one inning in 2020, before signing with the Yankees. And Kluber was looking like a bargain this season, including pitching a no-hitter May 19th against the Texas Rangers. But Kluber, 35, went on the IL with a shoulder strain after his next start and is out for the foreseeable future.
“I don’t think anyone gives Syndergaard a multi-year deal, and I think his agent shouldn’t ask for a multi-year deal, either,” said Jim Duquette. “If he was able to get back for half a season, and pitched well, he could be pushing Zack Wheeler money. But with this setback, it’s much harder to ask for that kind of money. High-end velocity gets paid, but you’ve got to have health. I think it comes down to how far a team will push on a one-year basis.”
Wheeler, the former Mets pitcher, signed a five-year, $118 million deal with the Phillies before the 2020 season. Wheeler, 31, underwent Tommy John surgery in 2015 and missed both that season and the 2016 season when he played for the Mets.
“There are a lot of “TBD” issues. Say Syndergaard comes back in September and pitches his a— off, for what will likely be a team in a pennant race, that raises his stock considerably,” said Jim Duquette.
First, though, Syndergaard has to return to the team, a process that has been delayed by his latest setback. When and if that occurs will go a long way toward defining his future employment — whether that be with the Mets or another major league club.
“He’s had a good career with the Mets, but he needs to show that he can stay healthy,” said Dan Duquette. “I’m sure he’d like to be more consistent with the results and his health. His pitches during the recent rehab, there was a wide disparity on the velocity of his pitches. I think it’s more, what adjustments can he make to extend that career?”
Noah Syndergaard’s Latest Health Setback Could Factor Into His Upcoming Free Agency - Forbes
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