New Arrival: Noah Syndergaard, p, Cleveland Guardians
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When the Cleveland Guardians traded infielder Amed Rosario to the New York Mets in August, most fans were relieved. His -0.1 WAR was understating how terrible his defense was, and his bat was almost as bad. Worse, he was causing a bottleneck in the infield, since the organization had so many young middle infielders who needed at-bats.
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Coming back to Cleveland in the trade was Noah Syndergaard. This was more about money–and Cleveland helping eat some salary–than about value back. I had heard that most Dodgers fans were sick of Syndergaard, but I did not appreciate how bad a pitcher he had become until I saw it in person.
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Syndergaard started six games in Cleveland and went 1-2 with a 5.40 ERA/77 OPS+. Even when he had a rare good start, he gave up homers like a batting practice pitcher. Get this: Lance Lynn leads the MLB in HR allowed with 37, with a HR9 of 2.1. Syndergaard gave up 10 HR over his 33.1 innings in Cleveland, good for a HR9 of 2.7. That is…not good. And remember, this was a dude who actually led the league in the fewest HR allowed back in 2016 (HR9 of 0.5) when he went 14-9 and was selected to his only All-Star game.