Dodgers right-hander Noah Syndergaard threw a 50 pitch bullpen session yesterday, testing a cut on his right index finger that caused him to depart his last start after just one inning. Syndergaard is currently slated to start Monday’s game against the Twins, though JP Hoonstra of the Orange County Register notes that the club plans to pivot to youngster Gavin Stone in the event that Syndergaard is not cleared by Dodgers medical staff. Manager Dave Roberts tells reporters (including Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic) that the plan is for Syndergaard to start tomorrow followed by Clayton Kershaw on Tuesday, though Stone was scratched from his Triple-A start today, a fact which Roberts did not comment on. As noted by Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register, Kershaw may go on the bereavement list following the death of his mother yesterday, but Roberts says Kershaw currently plans on making that decision following Tuesdays start.
Syndergaard, who signed a one-year deal with the Dodgers this past offseason, has struggled in LA to the tune of a 6.12 ERA in 32 1/3 innings of work this season. A .333 BABIP and a strand rate of just 64.3% indicate some of Syndergaard’s woes can be chalked up to bad luck, but it’s clear that the 30-year-old right-hander is scuffling beyond that, as his 14.8% strikeout rate is the worst of his career, as is his 38.4% groundball rate if you exclude the 2021 campaign where he pitched just two innings.
Stone, who made his MLB debut earlier this month, is one of the top prospects in a highly-rated Dodgers farm system. The 24-year-old scuffled in his first taste of big league action, allowing five runs (four earned) on eight hits and two walks over four innings while striking out just one. Despite the rocky start to his big league career, Stone figures to be a major part of the club’s future given the uncertainty in the Dodgers’ rotation following this season, as each of Syndergaard, Julio Urias, and Kershaw could depart after the 2023 campaign.
As for Kershaw, the future Hall of Famer is off to another phenomenal start in his age-35 season, with a 2.36 ERA (188 ERA+) and 3.53 FIP in 49 2/3 innings. Though Kershaw has been dominant all throughout his career, he’s required more and more time on the injured list in recent years; through eight starts in 2023, however, Kershaw has been both healthy dominant as he looks to make more than 22 regular season starts in a season for the first time since 2019.
More from around the National League…
- The Brewers are set to skip Eric Lauer’s start during the coming turn through the rotation, as noted by Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. For the time being, Lauer will work out of the bullpen. Counsell wouldn’t comment on plans for the longer-term beyond the current turn through the rotation, though Hogg notes that the Brewers hope the move will help Lauer recapture his 2021 form, when he posted a 3.19 ERA in 118 2/3 innings of work. As Hogg notes, Lauer’s struggles go back to last summer, as the 27-year-old lefty has posted a 4.49 ERA in his last 26 starts, with 27 home runs allowed during that time. Lauer’s sojourn to the bullpen figures to make room for right-hander Colin Rea to remain in the rotation for the time being.
- More details have become available on the minor league deal between the Mets and catcher Gary Sanchez, as The Athletic’s Will Salmon reports that Sanchez has an opt-out in his deal on May 19. That gives New York just a few more days of Sanchez’s guaranteed services in the minors before he can test free agency again to look for a better opportunity elsewhere. Sanchez has raked through four games at Triple-A Syracuse, with six walks and six hits (including a home run) against just five strikeouts in 19 plate appearances. The Mets have suffered a rash of injuries behind the plate, leaving the club with Michael Perez backing up top prospect Francisco Alvarez.
- Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford was activated from the 10-day IL today, as noted by Maria Guardado of MLB.com. While he’s slotted into the lineup at shortstop, he recently spoke to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale regarding his future. Crawford, whose contract with the Giants is up at season’s end, admits that he’s not sure if he will continue playing beyond 2022, and both manager Gabe Kapler and infield prospect Casey Schmitt have spoken glowingly about Crawford’s willingness to assist Schmitt in his transition to the big leagues. Crawford, the last player standing from the Giants’ trio of World Series championships in the 2010s, is hitting just .169/.244/.352 in 78 plate appearances with the club this season.
These are NL notes, not AL notes.
As the title indicates. Nothing for you to be angry about.
The title was wrong and has been corrected. Nothing for you to be snotty about.
@gdjohnson: In case you didn’t notice, angry is part of his username. Snotty is not part of mine. Nothing for you to stroke your johnson about.
And I don’t know that the title was wrong. You must have imagined it. Not surprising for someone like you.
Nothing to blew your baron about
And nothing for you to behave like an idiot about, though you obviously can’t control it.
The only notes that matter Yankee fan. Yankees are a joke. They’ll never in 100 years be anything close to what they were when they were playing butchers and plumbers in the 50s.
The SF Giants are paying over 50 million dollars to three over the Hill players(Hanniger, Conforto, Crawford)whose cumulative W.A.R is ZERO.
Don’t forget Manea, Stripling and Rogers. Season 5 of Farhan Zaidi everyone!
I only watch the Giants maybe 2x a week, so don’t know if those others are as bad as Conforto, Hannigan and Crawford, but is that even possible?
Stripling and Rogers have been leaving dogpiles when they pitch, while manea has been well manea a pitcher who can look ok at times but can be quiet awful other times.
on the brightside, they are done with most those contracts after 2023 (crawford and bunch of opt-outs), and 2024 done with rest (except rogers)
That would be a bright side except that Farhad will go out and sign another 6 aging veterans to 100 million dollar a year worth of contracts on 2 year deals with a annual opt out just in case one of them actually performs somewhat resembling a major league ball player. He is bad every year he gets one decent player out of a dozen for Pennie’s yes, but fails to put together a line up of capable major leaguers. I feel bad for Wilmer Flores, who could seriously be competing for a ring at this point but is tied up playing for a team full of has been’s a and won’t be’s. I’m a Giants fan but would like to see him traded for his own sake, and I doubt he would shed a tear over it this time.
He was riding in a uhaul in Georgia.
@nitnontou,
I lost my mothers to Parkinson’s in 2008 on Mother’s Day. After a long battle it was actually quite relieving. And every year I am comforted by all the folks showing appreciation for their mothers. It’s weird you would think that would be catastrophic but at least for my circumstances it has been the opposite.
I commented signing conforto to that contract was never going to work. I got told I didn’t know what I was talking about and it really wasn’t that much money. Lol. Giants are the poster child of an organization going backwards.
Conforto will be fine.
Sorry, but you don’t know what you’re talking about and it really isn’t that much money. 🙂
Conforto has hit 6 Home Runs so far this season so at least he is showing some power which should be the main concern coming back from a shoulder injury
Other than you not knowing that punctuation is a thing with commas, periods, and such.
Way to call out someone’s grammar with a sentence fragment. Pot, meet kettle.
Not a sentence fragment. Go back to school and retake English.
In the future, consider keeping the piehole shut so we only think you might be an ignorant doofus instead of opening it, spewing stupidity, and confirming our suspicions in spades.
“Not a sentence fragment” is a sentence fragment.
Comma missing between “shut” and “so.”
Comma missing between “doofus” and “instead.”
Misuse of the words “we” and “our.” The suspensions are yours alone, which would be singular.
It is indeed a sentence fragment. It’s a dependent clause that does not express a complete thought. Feel free to keep celebrating your ignorance, though.
It seems Blue Baron doesn’t come here to discuss Baseball, he just comes to nitpick and insult others
Must have been a bad cut on his finger. How did that happen? Sounds serious.
Depends on what article you read. The MLB site has referenced a blister. Thor is horrible when healthy, so injuries which keep him from throwing baseballs in meaningful games is probably in the best interest of the Dodgers organization.
It looked real nasty when he tried to pitch with it last week. No word on how it happened. Could have been a kitchen knife for all we know.
Noah Synnderrgaard has around 150 million reasons to demand a contract extension from the Dodgers.
What are the reasons? 4 or 5 reasons should do.
To secure a big contract. He should demand it now and threaten them with worse performance if they play hardball.
Gosh he would do worse? That’s really taking them to the cleaners I’d say.
“It would really be unfortunate if I threw at least 8 fastballs of less than 88 MPH with no movement right down the middle the next time I pitch…”
last 16 innings 4k’s given up 12 ER
Definitely worth 150m
Hey it could be worse, they could’ve called it NHL Notes…
Syndergaard’s finger isn’t Thor anymore.
I was gonna say the thame thing.
He has around 150 million reasons to demand it from the Dodgers.
And we have at least 150 million reasons to call you an idiot, just like with your Marlins Fan username.
Still see you’re delighting the world with that scintillating sense of Blue Baronic humor.
I do believe you could constipate a prune, sir.
Might as well be consistent and call you out for being the ignorant doofus you are.
“I do believe you could constipate a prune, sir.”
Ha – I’ve never heard that one. It was…moving.
The Dodgers have reestablished order in the NL West, by slapping down their step brother Padres; all is well.
They’ll collapse again like every other year.
With only one team out of the entire league not “collapsing” at the end of the season….be better
You’re not too bright. LAD has a long and famous history of choking in big postseason moments. Not the same for the other teams, many of which haven’t made the playoffs in years. Think a little harder next time.
In a rather small sample size Sanchez is hitting much better with the Mets AAA team than he did with the Giants. I doubt the Mets carry 3 Catchers though so either Alvarez or Nido would have to go for them to Carry Sanchez when Nido is healthy
In addition to seeing how his finger will hold up we’ll get to see if the hypnotherapy Syndergaard has been undergoing the past couple weeks has any impact on his performance.
Does Zaidi and Kapler get extended? Also, how’s Bart doing? Just saw that he has zero home runs?
I see the Giants and Rockies competing for the cellar in the NL West this year, hopefully I’m wrong…
Bart had a hot start, but is coming back to earth. Maybe he’ll strike out less this season, but hopefully not at the cost of his power.
Kapler and Zaidi are probably getting extended no matter how poorly the Giants do this season. Don’t ask me to explain why, because I don’t get it, either.
Kapler is signed through next season. Zaidi has an option for next season that is yet to be exercised.
Publicly the Giants are not saying anything one way or the other but seeing as how the offseason played out and the way the team is performing neither is an obstacle for the team to make sweeping changes next winter.
The Giants employ 17 coaches on the Major League coaching staff, which is the most on any team. Literally almost having a coach for each individual player is a detriment to trying to build a “team”
I wouldn’t mind all the coaches if they were actually getting the players to perform well, but they aren’t
I feel awful for Kershaw, my full condolences to him and his family. Incredible that he intends to pitch.
Never an easy time to lose a parent, but right before mother’s day…how sad.
At this point, I’d rather put Gavin Stone out there even if Thor’s healthy. He’s lost another 2mph on that fastball since last year, and clearly struggles to put batters away without having his blow-away stuff of old.
If someone like Stone steps up and grabs the spot, Thor better get used to the jog from the bullpen. He’s a sunk cost, so may as well deploy him where he might be an asset.
Agree. At least with Stone, the ceiling can be much higher.