Star starter Noah Syndergaard’s injury was an omen in the Mets’ Doomed 2017 season, described from an upcoming book by Post Beat reporter Mike Puma. “If These Walls Could Talk: New York Mets: Stories from the New York Mets Dugout, Locker Room, and Box.”
Noah Syndergaard had a good idea that he was about to tear his lat down several weeks before it actually happened.
In an effort to bulk up before the 2017 season, the pitcher joins a gym near his home outside Dallas, spending about $ 3,000 a month working with a group of athletes under trained supervision. Cindergard nicknamed Thor, but arrived at spring training resembling the Incredible Hulk, throwing a baseball as ideal for hardly anyone.
“At the time everyone was doing the same workout, which I think is stupid,” Cindregard said. “Everyone has different goals, different body types and different needs.”
Cinderegard learned the hard way. After arriving in Florida, he sought out personal trainer Eric Corresi and a soft tissue specialist to learn about his body and how it should perform.
Both studied Syndergaard and informed him that he had become a high risk for tearing his lat due to his offseason workouts.
While baseball workouts were already underway in Port St. Lucie, time was of the essence.
“We tried to solve the problem as much as possible, but there is not much you can do at that point,” said Syndergaard. “My overhead mobility and the way my scapula worked with the rest of my body crashed a lot. He predicted it. They were not surprised when the lat broke. “
The fact that there was a high risk for Cinderegard when the tears came in the form of news for Terry Collins and Sandy Alderson was when I informed him about it in 2019. Collins offered a dismissive laugh while Alderson wondered if Cinderegard’s version of events was a revised history.
“Syndergaard had a hard time listening to other people, but this is the first time I’ve heard,” Alderson said.
In the days before the start of Cinderegard in Washington on April 30, the pitcher was diagnosed with biceps tendonitis. Alderson suggested further evaluation with the MRI exam, but Syndergaard put aside the idea and insisted that he was fine.
After a change from Bryce Harper in the second inning of that 30 April, Cindergaard panicked and reached for his right side, tearing up the Lats, sending the Mets’ season into a spiral from which they would never recover. . Within a few days, Yoenis Cespedes was moved to the injured list with a quadriceps injury, depriving the Mets of two elite performers.
“I don’t know whether [the MRI] Nothing would have been done or done for Syndergaard, but if it had happened and it had not happened, it would be prudent on our part and it was my fault, my responsibility, ”Alderson said. “I should have insisted on it, no more.”
Syndergaard still holds the view that the MRI examination may have prevented his injury.
“It drives me crazy”, Cindergaard said. MRI said, “MRI doesn’t matter, because what I had started and tore my lat was the first innings I was throwing at 100 and 101. An MRI is not going to show anything if you go there and still be able to throw that hard away. “
The Mets were less likely to reach the third straight postseason and were effectively dead within weeks.
Following their surprise World Series appearances in 2015, the Mets had enough young or in-prime quality pieces that October baseball believed would become a regular occurrence. The first misscall came before the new year, when the Mets made a qualified offer for Daniel Murphy, only to see his postseason hero leave for rival citizens on a three-year contract worth $ 37.5 million.
But Murphy’s postsec was not a temporary one for the Mets. Although still challenged defensively, he finished second in the MVP voting of the National League in 2016, with 25 homers .347.
“I’ve said to myself that Murph was a mistake not to keep it,” Alderson said years later. He said, “He had such a good playoff and then was very close to the World Series – aggressive, trembling – and I think we kind of thought, ‘Old Murph is re-emerging here,’ but He kept hitting on Washington. “
Adam Fisher, the team’s director of baseball operations under Alderson, said Murphy’s personality also played a role in his decision to leave.
“Just the brutal defense and the way he plays the game, all the goofy mistakes and the ‘rah, rah’ stuff,” Fisher said. “I think a lot of us were just like, ‘Eh, it’s time to move on and have a second baseman and a slightly better defender. Murphy … has obviously made the adjustment, but he will be that player What he was in the postseason takes a real leap of faith, and that’s what he changed in. Good for Danielle.
“Hisite at full 20/20, you trade Lucas Duda and put Murphy on first base. It’s a better fit and you can still get Neil Walker to play second. A few years. [Murphy] As your first baseman and you are looking real good and it mitigates most of the issues. “
The Mets shifted their focus to Ben Zobrist, one of the first players to carry the label “super-utility”. Team officials got a good look at Zobrist in the World Series, as he posted a respectable .781 OPS for the Royals in five games.
Zobrist had a deep conversation with the Mets that he looked for possible places to live in the suburbs of New York City. He eventually accepted a four-year, $ 56 million deal from the Cubs, which placed him close to his Midwest roots.
“I don’t know if we thought we were meeting [Zobrist], But he was clearly our No. 1 target, “Fisher said.” We liked what the Cubs did, and it helped the Cubs win the World Series, which is what we wanted. We just wanted someone with versatility, leadership and a really good attitude. He beat us with the Royals and he was very good.
The Mets pivoted a trade, acquiring the Joker in a deal that sent Jonathan Niese to the Pirates. The left-handed Nise was perhaps most remembered during his Mets tenure for getting a nose job at the expense of Carlos Beltran, who one day said to the pitcher, “Hey, we need you to get a new nose . ” Nisea underwent a rhinoplasty later that season to help him with his breathing.
Murphy continued the chance his former team got each time. In 2016, he batted .13 with seven batters and 21 RBIs against the Mets. He lagged behind only Chris Bryant in the MVP race to help the Nationals win the NL East.
Clearly, Murphy had become a steal for the nationals, and he did not lose to the Mets after the season, with a team official hinting that if the second baseman accepted the club’s eligibility offer last year, So he must have been staring at a much larger contract in free agency – perhaps in the neighborhood of nine figures – than he had received from the nationals.
The Mets official said, “We both were screwed.
“If This Walls Talk: New York Mets: Stories from the New York Mets’ Dugout, Locker Room, and Press Box” by Mike Puma is presented with permission from Triumph Books. For more information or to order a copy please visit triumphbooks.com/wallsmets.
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