Noah’s first start should frighten MLB

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — If you want to split hairs, yes, Noah Syndergaard had those two brief outings last September, three innings and 31 pitches against the Phillies and Nationals at a point when the Mets’ season had long since been declared dead. If you don’t remember that, well … who can blame you?

Syndergaard said those were helpful building blocks for him, a reward of sorts for four months of patience and rehab and hard labor, watching his teammates steadily sink without him there to do anything about it.

Still, he realized this was something else. These were the world champions, the Astros, playing their A lineup on a hot afternoon at the Ballpark of the Palm Beaches. This was his first start of the spring, his first time out after a renewed and rejiggered offseason regimen he committed to when last year’s crashed and burned.

And there he was Monday afternoon after the Mets’ team bus arrived after the 50-minute trip south along I-95 from Port St. Lucie, pacing the clubhouse, eager to prove with his arm what he had felt in his heart all these months. “I just wanted to go,” he said. Then he threw his first pitch of the new year to Houston’s World Series hero, George Springer, a fastball. The ball popped in Jose Lobaton’s glove, and the scoreboard delivered the news a half-second later. One hundred miles per hour. In the dugout Mickey Callaway smiled.

“First time I’ve ever seen that,” he said.

The grin told you the manager of the Mets was unconcerned by the 21 pitches that followed, by the perfect 1-2-3-45-6 outing, by the 11 fastballs Syndergaard delivered that reached triple-figures (two of which, to reigning AL MVP Jose Altuve crept to 101), by the fact Syndergaard was making the scoreboard sing on his first day of work. “We just have to make sure he doesn’t overthrow,” Callaway said, “because he never has to.”

That never stopped him before, of course, which is why each of those 100-mph sizzlers could have been greeted with entirely different reactions. Look, it’s never a bad thing to see a fastball pitcher crank his fastball, especially when it looked as easy coming out of the hand as Syndergaard’s did Monday.

But we are only a year removed from Syndergaard declaring he wasn’t satisfied just giving the radar gun a workout, he wanted to wear it out. That’s how he’d attacked the offseason of 2016-17, gaining muscle and, perhaps, a few ticks of velocity, and it all ended in a hubris-shattering way in Washington on the final day of April.

So after this 22-pitch sneak preview, we are left with only two conclusions: Either Syndergaard is one obstinate sonofagun who learned nothing from his travails of a summer ago. Or his talent is even freakier than we thought.

Judging by how lean and flexible he looked, it really may be the latter, though it’s still an awful long way between now and Opening Day. And Syndergaard proved he still has enough confidence and ambition to fulfill the early swagger that used to make his early starts so much fun.

When it was pointed out that the six Astros he faced — Springer, Josh Reddick, Altuve, Carlos Correa, Marwin Gonzalez and Brian McCann — were merely the core of the team that brought home the Commissioner’s Trophy last October, Syndergaard took it in stride.

“Those guys will be good for many years to come,” he said, “and if we want to compete at the highest level we’ll see a lot of them.”

Given that the only place they can possibly play against each other for the next few years is in the World Series, that speaks volumes about what Syndergaard believes — in his team and in himself.

“I wanted to establish my heater,” he said, and if that makes you cringe based on his past behavior you should understand: That’s merely following the orders of Callaway, who knows a thing or three about pitching, and who wants all of his pitchers to make sure that if nothing else they are comfortable throwing their No. 1.

“I want them all to use their fastball,” he said. “And spring training, especially, is the time to use your fastball.”

As such, we might not only have seen the re-emergence of a dominant pitcher Monday afternoon at the Ballpark of the Palm Beaches. We may well have seen the beginning of a beautiful friendship.