Syndergaard should be remembered for his duel in the 2016 one-game playoff. He pitched brilliantly, but that memory is already mostly faded because the Mets lost.

I have a clear, unforgettable memory of him from before game two of the 2015 NLDS against the Dodgers. He had a crazed look on his face while he was warming up in the bullpen at Dodger Stadium- he had his "1000 yard stare" or his "war face" on; either one would be an accurate description.

Oh, and I remember when he had a setback in his rehab process last year, he posted a clip on his twitter account from the movie the Naked Gun, the part where there is an exploding building behind Frank Drebin and he's saying, "There's nothing to see here! Please disperse! There's nothing to see here!" That was a funny way of breaking the bad news that he wasn't coming back anytime soon, and in the end, it was a signal that the Mets had to move on.

In the end, Noah didn't fulfill his potential in NY, at least over the course of a full season. Flashes of brilliance but too wild. Sounds like another guy from TX who pitched for the Mets.

Also, the LA Times posted an article saying that something like "the Noah Syndergaard experiment must end" and I wanted to cut and paste large portions of the article onto this page for chuckles but I didn't have the time or energy to spend an hour writing a hot take to complement that source material, so here is the link and I'll let it speak for itself. It's pretty bad, and bad for Noah (and the Dodgers), not bad regarding the sportswriting.
https://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/story/2023-05-31/noah-syndergaard-dodgers-nationals-mlb-elliott

Stu, I did not think really Noah was going to have 383 strikeouts last year, but I was impressed that his ERA was 3.83 for the Angels. That counts for something, right? I DID think he might have 200 strikeouts, but he ended up with a laughable 95. I wonder how many closers had more.

This year, he's been atrocious for the Dodgers. My take on him this year is number one, he needs a haircut. All that long hair carries his past auric energy of the golden Thor, now broken and lifeless, clinging to the back of an aging head. A Marines style buzz cut would do him good, as well as a month in basic training with no more than 1500 calories per day. The former Thor looks really out of shape this year. He's not Bartolo Colon fat, he's approaching an R.A. Dickey level of girthiness, and not in a good way. Something about his obvious increased weight seems off, as if it's poorly distributed throughout his body and is messing with his mechanics. He needs to get back to his weight from early in his career in order to possibly increase the velocity of his fastball, which has dropped to a high of 92-93 MPH tops these days.

He's willing to give his "hypothetical firstborn" to be his old self again, but is he willing to cut his hair and stop eating so much?

If not, he should just lean into his newfound girthiness and develop a short-armed knuckleball. Then he might become a 20 game winner for a year and get traded for a couple of prospects.