MUCH PAIN, SOME GAIN
Sign that injury can humble Syndergaard
Aweekafter tearing his lat muscle, Noah Syndergaard essentially said he didn’t believe he could have done anything to prevent the injury that will keep him out until at least mid-July. “Just something weird happened,’’ he said on Saturday.
For his sake, let’s hope he knows better. And no matter what he says, I do think Syndergaard probably did learn from this in a few ways: First, that he’s not indestructible, and maybe he has to be a little careful about how far he pushes his body in the weight room in pursuit of throwing even harder than 100 mph.
Secondly, when your arm hurts, get an MRI before you pitch again. Not that the Mets would let him say no under similar circumstances in the future, as GM Sandy Alderson indicated on Saturday, but surely Syndergaard would be smarter the next time.
He and the Mets can say there was no connection between the lat injury and the pain he had felt on two separate occasions only a few days earlier, but no one knows if that’s true.
In fact, everyone from other pitchers to medical experts have weighed in, with the consensus being the injury may well have occurred because the back of the shoulder was heavily stressed, as a way of compensating for weakness in the biceps, resulting in a tear of the lat.
Finally, perhaps this will convince Syndergaard to dial back his top-end velocity at times, as former Mets pitching coach Rick Peterson has suggested would increase his odds of staying healthy — without necessarily making him any less dominant on the mound.
The last part will be especially tricky because when he does come back, likely in mid-to-late July, the Mets surely will need him to be at the top of his game to get them to the postseason.
As it is, they’re surviving without him so far mostly because of an offensive surge that nobody saw coming. On Saturday they pounded the Marlins 11-3, scoring at least five runs for the ninth straight game, their longest such stretch since 2007.
As for the pitching, Robert Gsellman had his best sinker of the season, but still gave up eight hits and three runs in his five innings. So the Mets continue to put such a heavy load on the bullpen that Terry Collins said, “We need to start getting some length from our starters or our pen is going to be dead by July.”
In other words, yes, they sure as heck miss Syndergaard, even if they are winning. Big picture, however, maybe this first major injury will turn out to be something of a blessing for him, in that he didn’t blow out an elbow or a shoulder while learning he’s not Superman, or even Thor, as he is nicknamed.
It’s all a matter of maturity, on and off the mound. Who knows, Syndergaard might have avoided the injury if he hadn’t come out last Sunday trying to throw the ball through the backstop, trying to prove he was perfectly fine.
Remember, he’s still only 24 years old, which is a reminder: Perhaps he learned another lesson as well through all of this.
At his press conference on Saturday he opened by addressing his very public misstep from 10 days ago, when he made a scene in the clubhouse by scolding longtime PR director Jay Horwitz for allowing reporters to ask him about the condition of his arm on the day he’d been scratched from his start.
He called it a “miscommunication’’ and said he meant no “disrespect’’ of Horwitz.
Ok, he should have done it sooner, and maybe Syndergaard wouldn’t have done it at all had Ron Darling not hammered him on TV for it last Sunday — as had a few columnists, myself included.
Still, at least he understood the need to say something, as he sat down in the interview room to take questions for the first time about his injury.
What matters most, of course, is how he pitches when he comes back.
In January, Peterson, who applied the study of biomechanics to his coaching as a way of preventing injury, told me he believed Syndergaard could pitch just as effectively by easing off the gas, saving his 100-mph fastballs for situations where he needed a big out.
But is that likely? It was only February, remember, when Syndergaard showed up for spring training talking about how he’d put on 17 pounds of muscle via his off-season workouts, and wanted to throw even harder than he had in the past.
He insisted at the time that he trained smart, prioritizing flexibility as well as strength, and on Saturday he said much the same.
“I do love to work out but I train the right way,’’ he said. “I don’t think it played a factor into this (injury) at all.”
Even if that’s true, it doesn’t mean Syndergaard won’t be a changed man in some ways because of it. Changed for the better, most likely.