NOAH: DON’T BUY THE HYPE
THOR DOESN’T SEEM TO BELIEVE HE COULD BE DEALT AWAY
Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard is staying on top of all the trade rumors floating around during the winter meetings this week.
Just one thing, though: He doesn’t want to believe them.
In a tweet sent Wednesday evening, he wrote, “Me watching MLB Network,” with a GIF of “Anchorman” character Ron Burgundy saying, “I don’t believe you.”
The long-haired righty has been the subject of a growing number of trade rumors in recent weeks, including a muchtalked about three-way deal that would put him in Yankees pinstripes and bring Marlins catcher J.T. Realmuto to Flushing.
Syndergaard probably won’t have to get a Bronx-style close-cropped haircut with the intricate Vegas-fueled swap idea seeming to have fallen apart, but the 26-year-old hurler would be a hot commodity on the market, with three more seasons of team control before he reaches free agency in 2022. He’s coming off a 13-4 season with a 3.03 ERA and a WAR of 4.0, 20th best among pitchers in 2018.
New Mets general manager Brodie Van Wagenen, who represented Syndergaard in his previous job as an agent at CAA, recently told reporters it would take “very special” circumstances’ for the Mets to even consider trading him. The pitcher responded by tweeting, “Strongest Avenger!”
Van Wagenen has been busy this winter, acquiring second baseman Robinson Cano and closer Edwin Diaz from the Mariners and has been dogged in his pursuit of Realmuto. He has shown a willingness to make big deals, a propensity that could make Syndergaard nervous about his future with the Mets.
The sporadic tweets from Syndergaard have been the closest he has come to speaking on the record amid all the trade rumors.
Maybe it’s all a plea to his former agent with his fingers crossed for good news to come, or perhaps it’s the pitcher signaling he knows something the rest of us aren’t privy to just yet.