Barring a miracle, it looks like Noah Syndergaard is going to spend his entire 2014 campaign in Triple A. Many fans believe that it isn’t the right approach to handling Syndergaard, especially after promoting Dilson Herrera from Double A. With Syndergaard not getting the call to the bigs this year, the Mets could opt to delay his promotion until mid-late April 2015 in order to gain another year of control.
Is this right way to go about dealing with your team’s top prospect? It certainly doesn’t feel like the right way. And the fans tend to agree. Fans want to see what they have with Syndergaard this year. There’s nothing else that Syndergaard needs to accomplish at Triple A. Las Vegas is known for being a hitters ball park and the PCL is known for being a hitters league. Syndergaard can’t get any better by throwing there. He can gain experience and knowledge by pitching in the big leagues, to better prepare for his first big league season next season.
But the Mets front office seems content with their decision to delay his promotion. The growing rhetoric that “Syndergaard isn’t ready” just doesn’t apply. Comparing Syndergaard’s numbers to those of his counterparts Zack Wheeler and Matt Harvey would paint the picture that Syndergaard isn’t just ready, but he’s at a better level then those two.
Now all of this could make sense if the Mets were gearing up to trade Syndergaard in order to get the big bat that the Mets have longed for. They wouldn’t want Syndergaard to hurt his trade value by being promoted and then subsequently struggle. Syndergaard’s trade level is at an all-time high because he is pretty much MLB ready.
The Mets have made it clear that they don’t want to move Syndergaard, but the decision to not promote him paints a different picture. They promoted a prospect from Double A, who many believed wouldn’t be ready until summer 2015, yet they kept their top prospect in Triple A.
Could it be that Wheeler has come into his own, proving that he has the ace quality stuff everyone raved about? Add to that the emergence of Jacob deGrom as a young, hard-throwing arm. Matt Harvey will be back at the beginning of next season. Has Syndergaard been moved out of the future plans of the Mets?
While all signs point to Syndergaard being a Met for the foreseeable future, these recent decisions have opened the door for the idea of a Syndergaard trade to gain some traction. That traction can make for an even more interesting winter than already imagined.
Why risk it? Why call up Syndergaard now when he isn’t even a lock to make the rotation out of spring training next season. After Gee/Wheeler/DeGrom/Harvey/Niese/Colon(until he’s traded) he’s pretty much the #7 guy right now or maybe even #8 if you might want to consider Montero. I don’t see why you would call him up to get a few starts in September when the team is out of contention. Do you want him to pitch bullpen duty? I don’t see the harm in having him wait another season. He’s already at an all-time high of 133 IP after throwing 117.2 the previous season. A season in which, he started at high-A and ended at AA. I disagree that his value is at an all time high and he’s prime to be traded right now. If anything, his AAA season might be seen as “not so good”, despite the fact that us Mets fans all know about Vegas and how fluky it can be, I’m not quite sure that every GM in the league understands this or they do know and they think they could get him for cheaper than he’s actually worth. After an offseason in which Mark freaking Trumbo was traded for Tyler Skaags (a consensus top 20 prospect pre-2013). Sure Trumbo can absolutely mash the ball, but he’s 28, can’t get on base (career .300 OBP), has one career season over .800 OPS and is an atrocity in the field unless he plays 1B. Let’s not get overzealous and try and trade Syndergaard for a straight up power hitter who is most likely on the downturn. I don’t think it’s coincidence that the Angels suddenly turned into the best team in baseball after they dumped Trumbo and were able to field a competent defensive team every day (and I’m not sure why they only used him 40 games at DH over 3 seasons).
As far as Dilson Herrera skipping AAA entirely? Even easier. With Murphy hurt and the Mets trying to sample Flores at SS, why not see if Herrera can handle himself. That way you can easily trade Murphy who is under team control for 1 year at a good price and that team would still be able to offer him a qualifying offer, either getting him for 1 year at a still good price, or getting a draft pick when he declines (most likely). I love Murphy and he is a fan favorite, but sometimes you have to see what else you’ve got behind him. Sometimes these prospects get blocked because of deals that MLB players have. Look at a player like Ryan Howard. He was blocked by Jim Thome and probably should have been up at least 1 year earlier than he was because the Phillies moved him along so slowly in the minors. It’s a lot more common to have a player skip AAA entirely, especially when he’s putting up huge numbers in a park at AA that is considered “neutral” and doing so at age 20, where he’s almost five years younger than the avg age of AA players.
Here are some Mets homegrown players over the years and how many games they played at AAA:
David Wright – 31 (started season at AA, called up after 60 games to AAA, then called up to the Majors)
Daniel Murphy – 9
Jose Reyes – 46 (4 in a rehab assignment for Toronto)
Ike Davis – 31
Lucas Duda – 151 (blocked by Ike and spent almost the better parts of two seasons learning the OF, disastrously)
Juan Lagares – 20
It’s very common unless a player is blocked by someone at their position or they did not do very well during their firs can of corn to play very few games at AAA.
Blame Colon.
Herrera came up because there was an opening at 2b. There is no opening for a SP right now, and unless you believe in the RP to SP route, there is no room for Thor.
Just another reason why i dont understand why all the love for Colon. The Mets need quality from their pitchers, not quantity. They already have the quantity part covered due to Sandy’s refusal to trade away his depth.
I’m fine with Syndergaard not getting the call this season.
Looking at the PCL leaderboards, Syndergaard stands at 22nd out of 34 qualified pitchers in ERA, and 24th in WHIP. He leads that group in strikeouts, which is nice and not much more.
I’d like to see him earn his way to the bigs based on performance, not our collective expectations…
I agree with this assessment. Syndergaard, while putting up some impressive numbers, also struggled at times, and needs to refine his craft. There is little to no benefit for him being called up just to sit on the bench or throw out of the bullpen, like Montero is going to do.Smart move by the front office, IMO.
“Syndergaard is at a better level than Harvey and Wheeler?” Can you show statistics to back this claim up?
Another reason he was not called up, the 51’s are in a playoff race and the organization wants to give the team a chance to win. And another reason could be pitch count.