Weekend warrior
Noah could pitch in Flushing
MIAMI — Noah Syndergaard was on the mound at Marlins Park Monday. Hours before the doors opened to fans and well before the Mets took on the Marlins for a meaningless series, Syndergaard threw 39 pitches in a simulated game with Mets coaches standing in as live hitters.
“I’ve been itching to get out there as fast as possible, even though it was just a little different scenario with the coaches standing in,” Syndergaard said after the session, which had him go up on the mound, come down and cool off and get back on the mound to simulate game-like situations. “Any opportunity I get to be on the mound gets the juices flowing a little bit.
“I can’t imagine what it will feel like when I actually get back into a ballgame.”
The Mets will give Syndergaard a taste of that, depending on how he feels today and through the week. The Mets expect him to make a limited appearance this weekend at Citi Field. He lines up up to platoon with Robert Gsellman on Saturday, which is when the Mets quietly hope he will be back.
Out since May 1 with a torn right lat muscle, Syndergaard will be severely limited by a pitch count when he does get on the mound and he will only get to make two appearances at most down the stretch.
Despite the concern about the Mets’ rash of injuries this season — they already have two pitchers and two of their star hitters out for the season — and the opinion of some that the Mets should just shut him down and wait for next year, it is important that Syndergaard pitch again.
It’s important for the Mets to make sure they know where he is in terms of his comeback heading into the winter, so they can know what to expect next spring.
“This is what they do,” Terry Collins said. “The only way we know what we’re looking at all winter long is to see where we are at the end of the year. Such as the two guys who can’t pitch right now, we don’t know where we are with them down the road. It’s nice to let Noah go out there. We have gone through the process of everything needed to do to get him on the mound again and I think it’s nice and we think it would be good to get him out there again so we have a gauge of where we stand heading into the winter.”
The idea of just shutting it down, not getting a chance to experience the feel of being on a major-league mound again, frustrates Syndergaard.
“I think it’s just like a personal thing for me,” Syndergaard said. “If I didn’t, I’d get really anxious that I spent those three or four months rehabbing at this point right now if they are just shutting me down. Then what really was the point of all that? I feel I’ve worked hard in the rehab process and really want to get out there and prove that I can come back from that type of injury healthy.”
Syndergaard, 25, has just one full season in the big leagues and this is his first real major setback. Expressing his understanding with the Mets’ process, Syndergaard seems to have matured somewhat from the experience. This season is lost for the Mets, but there is still some meaning for Syndergaard.
“This season is just kind of hard to comprehend, because you look around and see so many new guys from the Opening Day roster and for me personally I never experienced an injury like this where I had to just sit on the sidelines and just watch for so long,” Syndergaard said. “For a team and personal perspective, it’s been pretty different, but I feel like I can take it into offseason on positive note and get ready for spring training.”
Syndergaard has earned that chance to finish the process back on a major-league mound.