Leading up to the July 31 MLB trade deadline this season, Noah Syndergaard somewhat surprisingly emerged as one of the biggest names who was made available.
A variety of teams showed interest in acquiring the hard-throwing right-hander, with one of them being the Los Angeles Dodgers. The New York Mets ultimately decided to hang onto Syndergaard, instead becoming buyers by acquiring Marcus Stroman from the Toronto Blue Jays.
They began to turn their season around and remained in the hunt for the National League Wild Card Game before fading in late September.
Syndergaard is still under club control for two more seasons after 2019, but many believed he would again be shopped on the trade market this upcoming offseason. But according to Andy Martino of SNY, the Mets are planning to hang onto the 27-year-old this winter:
As for Syndergaard, the Mets were heavily engaged in talks about trading him, both last December and this July. Their inability to find a palatable deal, combined with the lack of momentum in Wheeler extension talks, led them to their current position that Syndergaard is unlikely to be the subject of trade rumors this offseason.
The Dodgers could be in the market for starting pitching this winter with Hyun-Jin Ryu and Rich Hill both hitting free agency. After having a Cy Young-caliber season, Ryu may be out of the Dodgers’ price range and Hill is 39 years of age coming off an injury-plagued season.
Even without Ryu and Hill, the Dodgers could still put together a formidable rotation with options being Clayton Kershaw, Walker Buehler, Julio Urias, Kenta Maeda, Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin.
Syndergaard would have been an excellent addition to that group as he has already proven to be one of the best starters in baseball at times. He is coming off perhaps the worst season of his career though, going 10-8 with a 4.28 ERA, 3.60 FIP and 1.23 WHIP in 32 starts.
If the Dodgers do look outside the organization for starting pitching help, the top free agents on the market in addition to Ryu will be Gerritt Cole and Syndergaard’s teammate on the Mets, Zack Wheeler. The Dodgers were also linked to Cleveland Indians ace Corey Kluber on the trade market last offseason, so they could potentially revisit that as well.
