The Dodgers’ buy-low free agent flier on Noah Syndergaard hasn’t panned out thus far. The former All-Star righty has been tagged for a 6.54 ERA in 52 1/3 innings. After throwing quality starts in three of his first four outings, he’s only once since completed six innings — a start in which he surrendered six runs in Tampa Bay.
Syndergaard had another frustrating appearance this afternoon, allowing five runs in as many innings with three homers in a loss to the Nationals. After the start, manager Dave Roberts was noncommittal about Syndergaard making his next start (relayed by Juan Toribio of MLB.com). Los Angeles has off days on Thursday and next Monday, so they could bypass Syndergaard’s next turn without officially pulling him from the rotation.
Since returning from 2020 Tommy John surgery, Syndergaard has worked with diminished velocity. The one-time fireballer is averaging only 92.1 MPH on his sinker this season. That’s down nearly two ticks from last season’s work with the Angels and well below the upper-90s heat he’d featured early in his career. Not coincidentally, Syndergaard has seen his homer rate skyrocket and has punched out a well below-average 15.3% of batters faced.
Syndergaard’s struggles add to some uncertainty at the back of the L.A. starting staff. The Dodgers have gotten great work out of Clayton Kershaw and Tony Gonsolin but doesn’t have much present stability behind them. Walker Buehler is still rehabbing from last year’s Tommy John procedure. Julio Urías and Dustin May are both currently on the shelf, with May ruled out until at least July.
The Dodgers have leaned on some younger depth options to take the ball. Top prospects Bobby Miller and Gavin Stone have made their big league debuts this year. Stone has struggled, allowing 17 runs with more walks than strikeouts over his first ten innings. Los Angeles optioned him to Triple-A Oklahoma City yesterday, setting the stage for righty Michael Grove to return to the rotation.
Grove has been on the shelf for a little more than five weeks thanks to a groin strain. He’s expected to be reinstated on Saturday to take the ball against the Yankees, tweets David Vassegh of 570 AM in L.A. It’ll be Grove’s fifth start of the season. The 26-year-old has an 8.44 ERA through 16 innings but performed fairly well in Triple-A last season.
Depending on Urías’ and May’s health outlooks, the rotation looks as if it’ll be an area for the front office to monitor as trade deadline season gets closer. In spite of the starting pitching depth, L.A. leads the NL West at 34-23 and is positioned to buy this summer yet again.
President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman recently alluded to trade season, discussing the potential to bring in some offensive help over the coming months (relayed by Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register). The front office head pointed to the defensive flexibility shown by Mookie Betts as opening additional trade avenues for the organization.
Bettes has mixed in middle infield work, including his first career shortstop appearances, with his customary corner outfield responsibilities. While the Miguel Rojas–Miguel Vargas tandem is still the primary middle infield, Friedman noted that Betts’ ability to move around the diamond could allow the Dodgers to look into various ways to bolster the lineup. That’d presumably be through scouring the corner outfield market while potentially increasing Betts’ shortstop reps at Rojas’ expense, though the market won’t come into clear focus for a few more weeks.
Syndergaard follow a similar trajectory to Matt Harvey. Sucks to see
Let’s hope he hasn’t been “Supplying” teammates like the Dark Knight
Maybe Thor and The Dark Knight can do a cross over Movie. Justice League vs Marvel. With Scarlet Johanson and Gal Galdot.
Trayce Thompson had 4 hits in the month of May. That’s a pretty significant problem that should be easily solved. Still no news on Ryan Pepiot who has been out since ST with an oblique issue. Was his oblique torn or severed? Still not on a rehab assignment. I say this because he could take Syndergaard’s spot in the rotation so Thor can be DFAd or moved to the bullpen.
Trayce was always a bit of a wild card. I imagine come August, if he’s still striking out 40% of the time in his limited plate apperances, they’ll see what they got with Jonny Deluca.
Can’t find much on Pepiot other than his rehab assignment was pushed back and would not be surprised if we’ve seen the last of him this season. And as far as Syndergaard, he was signed to eat up some innings in the rotation. His stuff is just too flat for him to have any use in the bullpen, even in a mop-up role.
DFA Thompson call up Johnny De Luca. Easy fix
The Dodgers roster is a mess. Has been from the start of the season.
Lot of teams in the league would love to have that “mess.”
Syndergaard is no Thor, anybody got a new nickname?
Thud?
Thru
Loki think he is washed
Stinkergaard.
Blankman
He’s Thor after he chopped off Thanos’ head and became a drunken couch potato.
Poor
“The Little Mermaid”
The Syndergarbage experiment needs to come to an end, AUTOMATIC “L” every time he starts!
Unworthy Thor
For that price tag, and still a mess? Money don’t buy comfort in baseball.
Dodgers opening day payroll was 210M. That’s middle of the pack. And as it should be being a big market team.
Their payroll isn’t one the highest in MLB THIS year, but it’s definitely not “middle of the pack.”
Asserting that makes me wonder how many casual baseball fans peruse MLBTR.
legacy.baseballprospectus.com/compensation/cots/
Dodgers opening day payroll was $222.6M and CBT was $250.4M. 5th highest payroll to start the season.
As usual, they will be shopping at the top of the trade market come deadline time so they will move up that list.
Still won’t pass Cohen.
Best record in the NL.
For how much longer? The rotation was a disaster waiting to happen, and now it has happened.
Always so negative. Boring.
It’s standard. If things are good – he’s quiet. If there’s a hint of grey, he’s complaining. Some people are fans simply because they’ve always been fans, and can’t outwardly show any enjoyment. Such a shame.
Thanks for your typical response. Total horse droppings.
The Dodgers rotation is ranked 14th in baseball. The pen is 26th. And that was before they lost Urias and May. They now have only two legit starters, forcing them to start two rookies against the Yankees this week.
Now you’re going to tell me how that’s going to work out. Well, I know you won’t, because insults are totally your thing. But that’s the question anyway.
Serious question – why are you a fan?
So only total homers are fans? You call that a serious question? 🙁
I sure was right on the money about you not responding to my question. Seems you’re the one who isn’t serious — about anything but insults, anyway.
BTW, this discussion is full of comments about the problems with the Dodgers roster. So why not chew on somebody else’s backside for awhile?
By 0.5 games lol
True but that’s only on two teams. They are already gone from anybody not named Braves and Dbacks
Would be so much better without Syndergarbage!
Everybody including the Dodgers know Syndergaard shouldn’t be pitching in the majors at all now. They’ll probably skip his next turn in the rotation, but otherwise they’re painted into a corner with nobody to replace him. The rookies have all been tried out and only Miller looks like he might have some staying power. It’s going to be a long rough haul to the trade deadline.
yet they still sit in first place. and rp help will be coming too… but i still don’t get why bickford still has a roster spot. baffles me
Agree, they need to DFA Thompson as well and find a legit shortstop! Anderson will be our shortstop before deadline, bank it!
I don’t see them trading for Anderson. More likely they trade for a corner outfielder and use mookie more at shortstop. He’s hitting .256/.302/.306 for a 606 ops. his hitting approach is the exact opposite of the dodgers. I feel like they might trade for a nick senzel type that plays all over and crushes lefties.
You could roll two grenades in that clubhouse and close the door and not do any more damage than would Anderson.
Oh where oh were is the underrated ACE who kept reminding us of the “Michael X” factor?
Blue Skies
Gonsolin looks great. Miller looks good. Kershaw and Urias will bounce at least part of the way back. May will be back long before playoffs.
Dodgers should rent a quality pitcher like Giolito but that is for the post season they are fine for now.
What does Kershaw need to bounce back from?
Kershaw hasn’t really been that bad. He has been walking a lot of guys though, which has shortened his outings but I think he’s just in a little rut. Hopefully, it’s just that and not another injury. Though I’m not liking this Yankee matchup on Friday
A couple of bad starts which were preceded by some really good ones.
McCourt
Kershaw’s last two starts he went 8.2 innings gave up 8 earned runs and had 16 hits and walks combined or a WHIP of almost 2. But like I said Kershaw will bounce back and have a great season like his start.
Or Kershaw will hurt his back again, spend and extended amount of time on the IL, and pitch poorly come playoff time.
Was hoping he would get his IL stint out of the way early in the season so he was pitching when we take a trip out to catch the 4 California teams in late July – early August. Really like to see him pitch one more time.
(No, the A’s are not a California team anymore and I wouldn’t give my money to Fisher)
I’ll talk to Clayton to see if we can schedule his IL stint before your road trip
His last two starts came right after the death of his mother. He’s an ultimate gamer to even try, but nobody can put that kind of thing out of their mind totally.
I would appreciate that. Let him know we are coming all the way from Florida and the one player we really want to see is him… and Ohtani. We will see the Dodgers against the Blue Jays and A’s at home and Padres on the road. Just needs to pitch in one of those series.
He’s had 22 starts the last 2 seasons and it’s not likely he will have more this season. He already has 11. He’s going to miss 11 or 12 at some point. Just hoping it’s not while we are out there.
I couldn’t get my head out of my hands for days. Not sure if I could do anything that would require concentration and coordination.
Everybody goes through the stages of grief, even pro athletes who are good at internalizing most of what happens to them. We don’t know how long his mother was ill before she died, but even if it wasn’t unexpected he’s probably not going to be himself for awhile. More like weeks than days.
He needs someone like Dave Duncan who can reinvent him. He’s no longer the same pitcher, but he’s trying to be. He could be effective if he opens himself to a new approach.
Speaking as a Mets fan, I always felt Thor wasn’t going to age well once he lost his juice. Never struck me as a high pitching IQ guy, didn’t walk many batters but the command left something to be desired, and he seemed to be overly reliant on his fastball to succeed.
Obviously a significant loss of velocity would be a challenge for any pitcher, but the above observations were a part of the reason why I was glad we let him go once he hit FA; injury history was also a significant factor, of course.
We’ll see how the potential reinvention route goes, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
As bad as the Phillies SP situation is, I am so glad Thor isn’t back.
Hey Dodgers you can have Anderson back for Thor. Your garbage for our garbage.
I’d rather have Anderson over Syndergaard—he appears to be done.
I think they should skip a corner outfielder and look for a center fielder like Luis Robert since the white sox are done
CF is the true area LA could afford to upgrade I agree, with SS second on the list offensively. A CF and a SP who can start a playoff game are 1-2 on the list imo. Between injuries and poor performance, those spots aren’t must haves, but there’s certainly room to add
Shane Bieber might be available for the right price right b4 the deadline if Friedman is willing to pony up some good prospects
Rangers could take a flier on him for the bullpen. Send Brad Miller to LA
The Dark Knight Jr
5 Top prospect starters in AA – the entire rotation and more behind it, Miller is looking good, Gonsolin is super, Kershaw outside of the starts since his mom passed was fantastic, he just needs a little time. As the Starters on the IL come back, Syndergaard will be a bullpen piece to pitch mop up innings.
The Dodgers should put Syndegaard in their bullpen. Let him either work out his issues, or rather, work on putting the maximum velocity on his pitches for a shorter period of time. You don’t want him giving up homers when he comes in with me. On base, there have been a number of guys whose velocity has gone up when they Re used for 6-20 pitches in a short appearance as opposed to throwing 50-100 in a start.
D F A
Not really fair to compare Thor to Harvey.
Thor is a pro who shows up in shape, tries hard, and is liked by his teammates.
Harvey had a bad attitude and massive party streak even at his prime, wasn’t liked in the clubhouse, and his dedication was often questioned.
Well a good example to all those who think that TJ surgery is an automatic gateway back to what you were before the surgery……sometimes it is, but in Thor’s case, he certainly isn’t the pitcher he was prior to the TJ surgery……
And as far as Harvey….how do you know he wasn’t liked in the Mets clubhouse……and at the time, he was supposedly the Mets savior pitcher and had 20 microphones shoved in his face every time he pitched……tough to criticize players for bad attitudes back here in NY when there are 10 print and 20 radio and TV reporters criticizing each and every move you make……out there in Anaheim Lala land, not even close…….
It was thoracic outlet syndrome surgery that did in Harvey. That and his partying lifestyle.
The Angels give out the most press credentials of any team and its not close. Reason? Ohtani.
Syndergaard gonna make us look bad if he makes the playoff squad come October better to just dfa at some point