From 2016-2018, few pitchers in Major League Baseball possessed a slider as nasty as Noah Syndergaard‘s. His blazing fastball set-up the off-speed delivery and often it was his go-to pitch in a tough spot. The slider averaged 92 mph and had batters flailing at it with little success.

In 2019, however, things changed for the New York Mets star. Syndergaard’s velocity on his slider was down to 89.1 mph on average and was much more hittable. There were games when Noah ‘lost’ the slider altogether and could not rely on it at all. It goes a long way in explaining why last season was a down year for Noah whose numbers were a somewhat pedestrian 4.28 ERA, 3.60 FIP, 1.23 WHIP in 197.2 innings.

On Tuesday, Syndergaard spoke to the media at spring training and the subject quickly turned to his slider. Was it the new ball? Was it pitching to Wilson Ramos instead of Rene Rivera? Was it mental? Or was it a combination of several factors?

Noah did not hesitate to announce to the media that his nasty slider is back. He told reporters, “I feel like the start of last season kind of showed glimpses of what it was in the past. … I think there were a couple in the 93 (mph) range, so that was encouraging to end the season on. There’s been a few mound sessions (in spring training) where I’ve started implementing the slider, and it seems to be back to where it was in previous years.”

He added, “I think last year where I struggled was a little bit of paralysis by analysis,” he explained. “Thinking a little too much, making things a lot more difficult than they should be.” Part of the over-analysis may have been concerning his battery-mate. But that won’t be an issue at least at the start of spring training as Mets manager Luis Rojas made it clear he would be paired with Wilson Ramos, even though Rivera is in camp.

Rojas told SNY, “They’re gonna work together. They’re gonna work in collaboration. Talking to Wilson and how he’s committed to the pitching staff and his relationship with the pitching staff, that’s something that — not only for (Syndergaard) but for everybody — he’s got homework for himself to go ahead and keep developing the relationship.”

As far as playing for Rojas, Syndergaard is “pumped” and is looking forward for the season to begin.

Noah elaborated further, “I’m extremely pumped and excited to have Luis as our manager,” he said. “He’s a guy that has a winning pedigree throughout the minor leagues — I think two championships in Savannah and one in Binghamton. So he’s a guy that knows how to win, that knows how to reach the ultimate goal. And that’s winning a championship. We’re all excited for it.”

Mets fans will be excited if the fearsome slider returns to Syndergaard’s repertoire and that it does, in fact, resemble the pitch that helped make Noah deliver ace-like stuff in many of his pre-2019 starts.