Noah Syndergaard doesn't believe that his days as "Thor" are behind him.
After signing Syndergaard to a one-year/$13 million deal, the Los Angeles Dodgers introduced the once-imposing right-hander via Zoom Monday. Still only 30, Syndergaard says that he believes his velocity will return to where it once was.
"The pitches I threw last year, I just want to throw those away," Syndergaard said, according to Jack Harris of The Los Angeles Times. "I see no excuse as to why I can’t get back to 100 mph and even farther than that. Just doesn’t make any sense. I don’t think there’s a baseball player in MLB that does what I do when it comes to the recovery and the training and the attention to detail."
Syndergaard split the 2022 season with the Los Angeles Angels and Philadelphia Phillies, going 10-10 with a 3.94 ERA and 3.83 FIP across 134 2/3 innings pitched.
You can pitch in the league a long time turning in the type of production that Syndergaard did in 2022, but his pitch mix hardly looked like the electric repertoire that he showed during much of his six-season stint with the New York Mets.
In 2017, Syndergaard's average fastball velocity was 99.6 mph. In 2022, it was 94.5 mph. All of his secondary pitches also saw varying velocity dips, according to FanGraphs.
Eric Stephen of True Blue LA notes that Syndergaard has worked out both at Tread Athletics and Driveline this offseason, hoping to regain his velocity. It is fair to wonder, though, how much of the velocity can be brought back by mechanical tweaks. It's possible that what Syndergaard showed in 2022 is his new normal.
Syndergaard had Tommy John surgery in March of 2020. By the time the 2022 regular season started, he was more than two years removed from the procedure. It's not as though he rushed back. His velocity should have returned in 2022.
Meanwhile, 39-year-old Justin Verlander -- who underwent Tommy John surgery in September of 2020 -- regained his velocity, which wasn't ever as hard as Syndergaard, but still enough for him to become one of the best power right-handed pitchers in baseball history. He won his third career American League Cy Young Award in 2022, and earned a two-year/$86.66 million contract with the Mets this offseason. It's the type of staggering average annual value Syndergaard once seemed destined to command in Queens.
Perhaps even among professional athletes, Verlander is just built differently. But that's the type of reputation Syndergaard once had.
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