Should Red Sox Kick Tires On Noah Syndergaard After Guardians Decision?

The Boston Red Sox earlier this season took a flier on a veteran pitcher who once flashed ace-like potential, signing Dinelson Lamet to a minor league contract to bolster their organizational mound depth.

Could Boston go down the same path with Noah Syndergaard, a former All-Star who on Sunday was designated for assignment by the Cleveland Guardians?

The Lamet experiment didn’t work. The Red Sox recently DFA’d the right-hander after just one major league appearance and five appearances at Triple-A Worcester. He rejected the minor league assignment in favor of free agency, ending his time with franchise.

Obviously, every case is unique. And one failed attempt shouldn’t deter the Red Sox, or anyone else, from turning over every stone in search of a late-season boost, especially with viable starting pitching so difficult to find this time of year. But quite frankly, it’d be surprising if Syndergaard fared any better. Therefore, it’s hard to imagine the Red Sox signing Syndergaard, assuming he clears waivers and enters free agency.

Syndergaard, an All-Star with the New York Mets in 2016, has been awful this season, posting a 2-6 record, a 6.50 ERA, a 6.21 FIP and a 1.39 WHIP in 18 starts split between the Guardians and the Los Angeles Dodgers — two teams known for extracting the most value from pitchers. He’s not missing bats (third-percentile strikeout rate and fourth-percentile whiff rate), he’s surrendering hard contact (30th-percentile hard-hit rate and ninth-percentile barrel rate), and his once-elite velocity has vanished (22nd-percentile fastball velocity compared to 97th-percentile as recently as 2019).

There are pitchers who reinvent themselves, for one reason or another, with great success. Sometimes, hurlers who undergo Tommy John surgery — a procedure that wiped out Syndergaard’s 2020 season and limited him to just two starts in 2021 — even come back stronger than ever. But that hasn’t been the case for Syndergaard, despite fairly decent production with the Los Angeles Angels and Philadelphia Phillies in 2022.

He’s remained healthy, which is nice. And he’s still relatively young, turning just 31 on Tuesday. But Syndergaard feels like a reclamation project at this point, making him an imperfect fit for a contender, like the Red Sox, barring an injury or any other unforeseen development that again pushes Boston’s starting pitching depth to the limit.

The Red Sox, for all their on-field issues, are just 4 1/2 games back of the American League’s third wild-card spot to start the week and finally have a healthy rotation (knock on wood), with Chris Sale and Tanner Houck recently rejoining a mix that also includes James Paxton, Brayan Bello and Kutter Crawford. Every contest counts. The risk associated with bringing in Syndergaard isn’t about cost; it’s about giving the Red Sox their best chance to win their final 31 games.

“It just feels like I’m pitching on ice skates,” Syndergaard said after his start on Aug. 16, per MLB.com. “I feel like every time I try to use my legs, they slip out underneath me.”

If this was hockey, that issue might be correctable down the stretch. But it’s not. It’s baseball. So, while Syndergaard — with his 6-foot-6 frame and long, blonde hair — is a fun hypothetical acquisition to consider, it’s important to keep in mind this is a very different pitcher than the fire-balling “Thor” lookalike who burst onto the scene with the Mets and finished eighth in National League Cy Young voting in 2016.

The Red Sox theoretically could kick the tires on Syndergaard. It’d just be surprising if they ultimately decided to allocate all-important innings to the veteran righty based on what we’ve seen from him in 2023.