There was a black cloud over the visiting dugout in Washington when Noah Syndergaard winced and grabbed at his pitching arm in a start at the end of April.
Blowing guys away with his heat wasn’t all that was missed, as the ace of the Mets pitching staff going down knocked the wind out of its sails very early on set the tone for the way things have panned out for New York.
However, Syndergaard may be inching towards a return from the ultimately torn lat he suffered on that fateful day against the Nationals.
The pitcher is set to begin a throwing program within the next two weeks, according to pitching coach Dan Warthen.
The right-hander would work towards a return later this summer, but could return even sooner as the Mets have tossed around the idea of using Syndergaard out of the bullpen, Warthen told Marc Carig of Newsday.
“If we decide we want to go get Syndergaard back earlier but use him as a one-inning guy, we’ll all talk about that,” Warthen said.
Warthen added that it all depends on the Mets needs at the time that Syndergaard is ready to return, but working out of the bullpen could work as a way for the reliever to ease back into things.
Syndergaard has pitched one game in relief for the Mets during the regular season in his career and once in the postseason when he came on in Game 5 of the NLDS in 2015.
Prior to getting injured this season, Syndergaard was 1-2 with a 3.29 ERA in just five starts.
In addition to Syndergaard, Matt Harvey, Robert Gsellman, Jeurys Familia and Neil Walker will all begin working their way back from the disabled list after the All-Star break.
