Noah not feeling weight of injury

PORT ST. LUCIE — Noah Syndergaard hadn’t heard the news, that another top young pitcher, the Cardinals’ Alex Reyes, needs Tommy John surgery. The Mets flamethrower knows that many people in baseball wonder if he’s headed for the same fate, and sooner rather than later as he continues to push the limits of size, weight and fastball velocity.

Yet Syndergaard seems unfazed over any concern that by adding 17 pounds to his 6-foot-6 frame, taking his weight to somewhere in the 260-pound range, he’s putting himself more at risk.

“I don’t see why you can’t get stronger and still maintain flexibility,’’ he told me on Wednesday. “That’s what I feel like I did.”

Maybe it’s only natural to worry about Syndergaard, considering that he is the hardest-throwing starting pitcher in baseball, with a fastball averaging 98 mph and a 93-mph slider that makes your elbow hurt just thinking about the force it takes to throw that pitch.

Furthermore, his comments upon his arrival a few days ago, that he wants to throw even harder this season, did cause ripples of concern at the highest levels of the Mets organization.

“Concern would be one word you could use,’’ a Mets person said on Wednesday. “I can think of a couple of others, too. It caught some people by surprise.”

That’s understandable as well, but there is no indication that Syndergaard is being reckless with his workouts, lifting like some bodybuilder. He says he followed a very structured program laid out by trainers in Dallas that included flexibility work as well as strength and agility training.

With that in mind, pitching coach Dan Warthen on Wednesday scoffed at the notion that Syndergaard is making himself more vulnerable to injury, saying: “Noah does pilates and yoga all winter. He’s a very flexible man.”

Indeed, Syndergaard may be the least of the Mets’ concerns. On Wednesday, after all, Warthen revealed that Zack Wheeler, who missed the last two seasons due to Tommy John surgery, experienced elbow tenderness after a bullpen session on Tuesday, and made it clear the Mets will be extremely cautious with him in the coming weeks.

In contrast, Warthen indicated that based on what he’s seen so far, he’s very comfortable with Syndergaard’s desire to push the boundaries on the mound this season.

“As I told Noah, I don’t care how hard you throw as long as you stay within your mechanics, the framework that we have worked on,’’ Warthen said. “If the ball comes out harder and you’re still doing the same thing, OK, that’s good.

“He’s a man-giant anyway. An Adonis. To see that extra weight … I saw him throw a couple of days ago and it was free and easy, and he remembered his delivery.

“(Throwing harder) might be a byproduct, but it will not be because he’s going to put more effort into it. That will not be allowed.’’

Syndergaard already pitches with maximum effort, and that too has been the subject of debate in baseball circles. Hall of Famer John Smoltz has been preaching publicly that this generation of pitchers needs to learn to pitch with less-than maximum effort at least at times to help them preserve their arms.

Likewise, former Mets pitching coach Rick Peterson, a student of biomechanics as they apply to the pitching delivery, told me this winter that he thinks someone like Syndergaard would reduce his chance of injury significantly by dialing down the velocity a bit, pitching at a more controlled level that allow his mechanics to be consistently “on time.”

Terry Collins is skeptical of such talk however, in part because he believes what doctors have told him over the years, that some pitchers are simply more predisposed to injuries than others, based on any numbers of physiological factors.

And, as the manager says of Syndergaard, “He’s a freak.’’

He’s referring to his righthander’s size and strength that might just make Syndergaard an outlier of sorts in this Tommy John age.

So, no, don’t look for Collins to try to change Syndergaard in any significant way.

“You’re asking a 24-year old guy to all the sudden change,’’ Collins said.

Then he’s got to learn stuff. And by the way: this guy threw 98 mph at the end of the season, and he didn’t get fatigued.

“You can bet your butt the next time he goes out there it’s going to be 98 again,” Collins said. “Because that’s who he is.’’

It’s not as if the Mets aren’t watching him closely. As Warthen documented on Wednesday, he has restructured the Mets’ spring training program to reduce throwing dramatically early in camp for all of his pitchers.

That’s mostly in response to four of their Big Five starting pitchers coming off some type of surgery — the same four that all had Tommy John surgery. he one who has not, of course, is Syndergaard. So has he been lucky so far or does his combination of size, strength, flexibility and a push-the-limits mentality all work to keep him free from injury?

Syndergaard believes his workouts help in that regard. As for the Mets, at this point they just pray that he’s right.

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