Noah Syndergaard Out for the Season with UCL Tear

Even with Coronavirus putting the entire sports world on hiatus and the U.S. economy to the brink of Depression-like calamity, bad news seems to follow the Mets.

What else is new?

Today, MLB Insider Jeff Passan reported that Mets starter Noah Syndergaard tore his Ulnar Collateral Ligament in his right elbow and is expected to have Tommy John Surgery.

Of course, if baseball returns this year, Syndergaard is out for the season.

And considering the timing of the injury, he could be on the shelf well into April of 2021, if not “likely into the summer months” according to Passan.

The Mets are expected to make an announcement later today.

Injuries have been a real problem for Syndergaard since he was called up to the Big Leagues in 2015.  In 2017, he left a game against the Washington Nationals after experiencing tightness in his right bisceps muscle. A few days later he was placed on the 60-day injury list and missed almost the entire season. A lot of people attributed Syndergaard’s workout regimen as a source of the injury, since he packed on muscle during the off-season.

In 2018, Syndergaard was placed on the injury list at the end of May with a strained ligament in his right index finger. He would miss a month, activated on July 12. Ironically 10 days later he was back on the injury list after contracting hand, foot and mouth disease.

The latest injury is a huge setback to a pitcher whom the Mets had hopped would be their number 2 starter behind ace Jacob deGrom. Last year Syndergaard had an up and down season going 10-8 with a 4.31 ERA in 31 starts. During the offseason he had agreed on a one-year $9.7 million deal with the Mets in arbitration.

He has one year of arbitration left in 2021, but if Syndergaard misses most of the 2021 season, one has to wonder if this is the last time we ever see him in a Mets uniform.

It’s hard to believe that it has been five years since the Mets had what many considered the best, young rotation in the sport with deGrom, Syndergaard, Matt Harvey, Steve Matz and Zach Wheeler. 

Harvey is unemployed and may never pitch in the Majors again. Matz has proven to be beyond mediocre; Wheeler took his talents to Philadelphia. Only deGrom remains as the linchpin of a once formidable rotation.