Since the Mets acquired Noah Syndergaard after the 2012 season, he perpetually appears at the top of Mets prospect rankings and MLB rankings. At the time of the trade, he was the top pitching prospect in the Blue Jays farm system. Over the past few years the Mets have had a rookie pitcher garner a lot of media attention during the debut part way through the season and many thought that this past year was going to be Syndergaard’s year. With the dominance of deGrom and Syndergaard’s struggles out in Las Vegas, he did not make his major league debut at all this season.
So far Syndergaard has been a starting pitcher for all of his minor league career. That is where he feels the most comfortable and has had success. He throws his fastball in the upper 90s and his 12-6 curveball has been described as a hook from hell given the amount of break on it. Most major league pitchers have at least two plus pitches and two other pitches that they can use to change it up. But could Syndergaard make the move to the bullpen and rely solely on his four-seam fastball and curve?
With the Mets rotation overflowing with starters, Syndergaard as a late-inning reliever makes sense. The Cardinals usually start off most of their young pitchers in the bullpen and it works for them. It does not solve the Mets problem, but it takes one starter out of the equation. Syndergaard can focus on throwing his fastball for strikes and learning to pitch against major league hitters, until there is a spot open for him in the rotation. Over his five seasons since being drafted Syndergaard averaged 10 strikeouts per nine innings and only 2.6 walks per nine innings. Those are great numbers that could prove to be useful out of the pen especially if he is able to throw his fastball harder not needing to worry about going long in the game. Also if needed he can eat up innings if a starter goes down or the game goes into extras. With Carlos Torres constantly overworked by being thrown out there this year to eat up two or three innings, he fits that role just as well. But how much time would Syndergaard get throwing out of the pen with other young guns like Familia, Mejia, and Black and the impending return of Bobby Parnell?
With the lack of spots open on the Mets pitching staff, Syndergaard could be used as a trade chip to acquire a big league shortstop or outfielder. Back around the trade deadline there was talk that a package deal of Syndergaard and Kevin Plawecki plus a few more would be traded to Colorado in exchange for Troy Tulowitzki. Then Tulowitzki went down with an injury and talks ceased, but will be brought back up later on. The Mets have also been linked to the Diamondbacks, Cubs, and Mariners as potential trade partners since they all have an excess of shortstops. Mets fans may see Syndergaard shipped to Boston in a deal for one of their outfielders except they are more looking for veteran pitchers.
Regardless, Syndergaard is a very valuable commodity that the Mets should not give up on. He could be an ace of a staff in a few years that contains Matt Harvey, Zack Wheeler, and Jacob deGrom, which excites Mets fans as potentially being one of the best rotations in baseball. The Mets do have holes they need to fill, but should not be resolved at the expense of Syndergaard unless it is the deal of a lifetime. Whether he ends up in the rotation, in the bullpen, or back to the minors for a few starts, he needs to stay with the team and the Mets should look at using their other available pieces to upgrade at shortstop and in the outfield.
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Syndergaard belongs as a starter. A twenty two year old starter with his stuff does not belong in a bullpen when the bullpen already has quality arms for the late innings. He should remain at AAA unless he can crack the starting rotation.
He is not going to replace Harvey, deGrom or Wheeler. Colon ($11M), Niese ($7M) and Gee ($5M ?) are not going to the bullpen at those salaries either. Two salaried non arbitration pitchers would need to be traded for Syndergaard to get a chance at a rotation spot. He would still have to beat out Montero for that to happen.
I think Syndergaard is capable of being the 5th starter now but I don’t see the need to make that happen . Noah will get his chance in the future because of a trade or an injury.
If he continues to struggle out in Vegas, where pitchers ERA are usually higher, is it doing him any good? He did have an unusually high BABIP this year, which will most likely go down this year if he goes back to Vegas. Also, I did not suggest the Colon, Niese, or Gee to go to the bullpen. More than likely someone is going to be traded and I think that someone should be one of those three. He is definitely a starter down the road, but for the time being why could he not be in the bullpen?
I completely agree Metsense.
The thing about PCL and our pitchers is not about the measureables we may all be interested in. What I care most about is can he repeatedly deliver balls through all his pitches that have the command and control necessary to make it in the Bigs. Also, while the PCL seems to be a hitters paradise, you can dial that down in the pros, but make the hitters better, and well, you got something similar-esque. Syndergaard is a baby. He needs to force his way up through quite a clutter to get there. Im in no hurry to just make him a Met. I also dont want him to linger in LV for no good reason, but he has command issues still to work out.
If Tim Lincecum could go to the pen at his salary w/ the Giants then so can Gee, Colon and Niese.
and if the Mets had a$144 million budget like the Giants I would agree.
Normally I would say this idea is crazy, but *if* Syndergaard start to destroy Triple-A, and *if* there is no spot for him in the NY rotation, then this could become a possibility. It saves him innings and gets him experience. As Chris said though, he’s still very young, and there really is no need to rush him here. Interesting idea, just maybe not to start the season.
Syndergaard a reliever(?), traded (?), who do you root for ? ( yunkees)! Afraid of losing the back-page wars, not to mention the win/lost record battle, and lastly a couple World Series!!!