WELL & BACK
Noah Syndergaard can’t do anything to save the Mets season — or his own — but the team hopes having him pitch an inning to start Saturday’s game against the Nationals helps him build toward a better 2018.
“We just want to get him back on the mound, if only for a moment, before the season ends so he’s back out there and gets re-familiarized with the circumstances and the fact he’s in a big league game,” general manager Sandy Alderson said before the Mets beat Washington 7-6 at Citi Field on Friday. “And he goes into the offseason with that little bit of additional confidence.”
The plan is for Syndergaard, who hasn’t pitched in the majors since April 30 because of a torn right lat, to toss one inning and then hand the ball to Matt Harvey.
“I’m gonna be really happy to see him,’’ manager Terry Collins said. “Especially after he comes out and Sunday morning he comes in and says, ‘Boy, I feel good.’ That’ll be a relief. That’s what we’re looking forward to.”
And if all goes well, Syndergaard could make a second appearance before the end of the regular season.
He threw a two-inning simulated game Monday in Miami and expressed a desire to pitch in the majors again this year.
“It’s a personal thing for me,” Syndergaard said following the simulated game. “I am getting really anxious. I spent three or four months rehabbing, and if at this point they are going to shut me down, what really was the whole point of all that?
“I feel I worked real hard in the rehab process and I just really want to get out there and prove I can come back from that kind of injury healthy.”
This certainly isn’t how the Mets planned on Syndergaard and Harvey to be used in September, but both have had lost seasons — much like the team.
The Mets began their final homestand losers of three straight and eight of 10 and were a season-worst 22 games under .500.
On Saturday, with Syndergaard and Harvey both facing Washington, Collins admitted it will be hard not to think of what the Mets could have been if both right-handers had pitched to their capability.
“I think certainly that’s a thought process we’ve had,” Collins said. “You sit in the back of your mind and say ‘If we could have had these guys …’ Well, you didn’t. That’s the reality of it all. You try not to get caught up in what could have been, because it didn’t.”
But the manager is confident
they can take something out of the last 10 games of the year. “This whole process right now is making sure these guys, starting Oct. 2 can go into the winter time knowing that they’re healthy and can get themselves ready for spring training,” Collins said. “And hopefully have a successful season where they can run out there 30-something times.”
Regardless of how Harvey and Syndergaard look as the Mets close out the season, there will be significant questions going forward about the rotation — and Alderson said a productive Syndergaard will be vital.
“We’re going to have to get back Noah Syndergaard,” Alderson said. “We’re going to have to continue to see improvements from some of our younger pitching and have to see where Steven Matz is.
“You don’t go out and replace the kind of quality pitching that we had coming into this season in one offseason. It typically doesn’t happen. We’re going to be relying to some extent on a number of those pitchers coming back.”
And Alderson said they would look at the free-agent market for rotation help.