Mack Ade – Noah Syndergaard

Connie Landrey of Fangraphs wrote a great story, entitled  We Still Haven’t Seen the Best of Noah Syndergaard . A highlight of that story is –

If you’ll allow me to make whatever the opposite of a hot take is, I’ll go ahead and assert that Clayton Kershaw is the best pitcher in the majors. This is almost a law of the universe, at this point — a law I don’t intend to contradict here. As for who’s next on the list, though, there’s more room for reasonable debate. One might ask, “Who’s the second-best pitcher in major-league baseball?”

In fact, I did ask it. According to the highly unscientific poll I took of my Twitter followers, Max Scherzer is an extraordinarily popular answer – and for good reason! Over the past four seasons he’s posted a 2.95 ERA, 2.90 FIP, averaged 263 strikeouts a year, and won two Cy Young Awards. You could also make cases for guys like Chris Sale, Corey Kluber, and the always underappreciated Johnny Cueto. For any of those pitchers to be the second-best pitcher in baseball, though, they’d have to surpass the guy who generates exceptional results while commanding what I might argue is the most jaw-dropping starting pitcher repertoire we’ve ever seen: Noah Syndergaard.

Look, it’s no big secret that Syndergaard has quickly become the darling of the Mets fans in Queens, but I don’t think the rest of the baseball world was ready for what this kid (he pitched last year as only a 23-year old) is accomplishing. Read this story. It breaks out all the categories that Syndergaard leads other starters, like Scherzer.

In simple terms, he’s only pitched in 54 professional games, 53 of which he started. His stat line over that period is 2.88, 1.10, 334-IP, 384-K. He has one more season before he begins his arbitration years, so this would be a great time to sit down with his representatives and try to work out a 4-5 year deal that both parties would go home happy with.

I asked ex-Mets pitcher, current SNY announcer, and good friend, Nelson Figueroa Jr. about his thoughts on Syndergaard:

    "It's rare you see a pitcher this young, this soon in his career, reinvent himself", said Figueroa. "He was a 3-pitch pitcher and really only a 2-pitch guy the first season in The Bigs. He now is a legitimate 5-pitch pitcher who can do it all. Adding the slider and 2-seamer to his already high octane arsenal now gives him the chance to continue dominating the 3rd and 4th time through the lineup. Now if he could just hold on runners."

Figueroa added, "seeing a guy with elite velocity not afraid to pitch backwards at times, and use his change-up in fastball counts successfully, is rare and what really sets him apart."

Metsmerized' John Coppinger had a different spin:

"Noah Syndergaard seems to be in the top five among starters in everything in 2016, whether it be traditional stats, advanced stats, velocity, what have you. The only reason I wouldn't extend him this year is that I wouldn't want to extend both he and deGrom at the same time, because Syndergaard would command so, so much more money and years."

The Mets have great pitching. Jacob deGrom is quietly becoming the two in the 1-2 ace staff of Syndergaard and himself. Steven Matz has a lot of talent for someone with a fragile arm and the Mets have to figure out an innings plan that can keep the kid from Long Island off anymore disabled lists. There’s even good signs that Matt Harvey may come back and repeat what he showed us he was capable of producing when he first hit Queens.

The big question mark continues to be Zack Wheeler, though the surprise emergence of both Robert Gsellman and Seth Lugo gives the Mets the rotation depth they need for 2017, and probably years to follow.

But, in my book. The Mets coffee in the future will be stirred by the spoon named Thor.

If the Mets are a future pennant contender, it will be Syndergaard, not Yoenes Cespedes, that takes this team to the promise land.