Noah “Thor” Syndergaard signed a one-year deal in hopes of hitting the free agency jackpot. His stats have been plummeting, with his batting average dropping every year. Slowly, the local media in the U.S. is starting to take a negative view of Syndergaard’s contract.
Drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 2010 First-Year Player Draft and debuted for the New York Mets in 2015, Syndergaard is often referred to as “Thor” because of his golden hair and fastballs. Of course, he backed it up with numbers. After going 9-7 with a 3.24 ERA in his rookie season in 2015, Syndergaard went 14-6 with a 2.60 ERA in 2016.
Injuries limited Syndergaard to just seven games in 2017, but he went 13-4 with a 3.03 ERA in 2018 and 10-8 with a 4.28 ERA in 2019 as part of the Mets’ “one-two punch” with Jacob deGrom (now with the Texas Rangers). However, “Thor’s” rise to prominence came to a halt in the 2019 season.
Syndergaard lost his entire 2020 season to Tommy John surgery. He returned to the mound in the second half of the 2021 season, but his ERA in two starts was a dismal 9.00. The Mets made a qualifying offer (QO) to Syndergaard, who was a free agent at the time, but he declined and joined the Los Angeles Angels to rebuild his career.
But Syndergaard had a rough start to his career. He went 5-8 with a 3.83 ERA with the Angels, and then went 5-2 with a 4.12 ERA in a Philadelphia Phillies uniform via trade, before finishing the 2022 season with a disappointing 10-10 record and 3.94 ERA. Ultimately, Syndergaard put his free agency dreams on hold and signed a short one-year, $13 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
For the Dodgers, Syndergaard has been “terrible. In 10 appearances this season, he is just 1-4 with a 6.27 ERA. In those 10 starts, he has only three quality starts (six innings or less) and four games where he didn’t last five innings. The biggest issue with Syndergaard’s struggles is his velocity.
Syndergaard averaged 98.7 mph on his fastball in 2016, the best season of his career, and 98.6 mph in 2018. Right before his Tommy John surgery, his fastball averaged 97.8 mph (157.4 km/h). However, his velocity dropped noticeably to 94.2 mph in 2021, followed by 94.1 mph in 2022 and 92.4 mph this year. There’s no sign of the 100 mph he used to throw.
According to MLB.com, “The signing of Syndergaard has not yielded good results. His 6.27 ERA is the worst among pitchers with 10 or more starts,” said MLB.com, which criticized the struggling Syndergaard. “The Dodgers can’t afford to keep Syndergaard out of the starting rotation right now with all the injuries. Julio Urias is out for at least a week and Dustin May won’t be available until after the All-Star break,” he wrote.메이저놀이터
According to MLB.com, Syndergaard said, “I don’t have a lot of positive emotions right now when I think about pitching,” adding, “I’m not the same after the setbacks I had coming back from Tommy John surgery. I don’t think I’m good enough right now to pitch well against a team like Tampa Bay.”
To date, Syndergaard’s contract with the Dodgers is best described as “terrible. With little upside, Syndergaard’s free agency dreams are slipping further and further away.