Ace Met pitcher Noah Syndergaard is on the DL after an abbreviated start against Washington, one that ended in an all too painful debacle for the Mets. The right-handed power pitcher has been diagnosed with a partial tear to his right lat muscle, with no time table as of yet for his return. Mets management has received some heat over the situation, some feel Syndergaard was rushed back into the rotation too soon after missing a start. However it could be argued that the seeds of Syndergaard’s woes date back to the recent off-season.
As you may remember, Syndergaard was a workout beast after the 2016 season, going heavy on a weightlifting regimen. The Newsday headline of February 12 screamed “Noah Syndergaard believes new muscle will add mph to his fastball.” But did bulking up his physique to add velocity end up being his downfall?
The lat muscle, or latissimus dorsi for you Latin aficionados, is a big muscle that connects the front of the upper arm to the back of the body. Eric Cressey, the president of Cressey Sports performance, had some ominous quotes on his website concerning lat injuries to pitchers. “Symptoms emerge after a dramatic increase in throwing stress” he stated. “When you add a lot of lat dominant lifting to the mix…things don’t usually go well” he also declared back on May 4, 2016, almost a year before the Syndergaard injury.
Syndergaard already threw the hardest fastball of any starting pitcher in the majors. According to FanGraphs, his fastball velocity in 2015 was 96.5 mph, in 2016 it was 97.9, and this year increased again to 98.7. Did he really need to be able to throw harder? Throwing that fast, that often has to put a strain on the muscles involved.
The website lsports.com reported that Syndergaard wanted to throw the ball at 104 mph. That sure sounds like overkill. The same publication noted that Tom House, ex-pitching coach of the Texas Rangers, upon learning of Syndergaard’s velocity goals, predicted a 60% chance of arm injury for him by June.
Syndergaard’s enthusiastic off-season weightlifting apparently was not accompanied by much in the way of throwing, which would have helped in stretching his muscles. According to reports, Syndergaard relied on yoga exercises for stretching. I have nothing against yoga, but a program that included at least some throwing could well have been a better option.
It’s hard to fault a guy for hard core workouts, but it just might have been better for all if he had cut back on the weight room time in favor of more stretching and tossing.
Wasn’t Met management involved in his off season training? Updates? Etc…The real culprit was allowing Thor to pitch without getting an MRI
Peter, I do not believe his workout routine was team approved, although I am not positive. I looked at related items about Yoenis Cespedes and his off- season workouts and it was mentioned that he worked with Met personnel, but I saw no such reference to Syndergaard. in addition it seems like the Mets were surprised by his increased muscle and desire to throw even harder, had he worked with team approved procedures this would not have been a surprise.
it was entirewly predicted by Tom House before the season. The muscle gain was not smart. Here is why:
http://www.northjersey.com/story/sports/columnists/bob-klapisch/2017/02/17/klapisch-pitching-expert-says-syndergaard-risk/98052410/
Terry Collins had some comments about players running less than before. I think we’re starting to see the upshot of a high-strength/low-stretching and endurance model. Not saying they don’t do any, but such an emphasis on making players bigger and stronger in past decade or two.
Gotta believe there’s a reason hot dog-eating, beer-chugging Babe Ruth wasn’t always on the DL…