Noah Syndergaard delivered some holiday cheer to the children of some New York City schools Thursday afternoon at Citi Field, but not without talking about how his offseason is going.
The 25-year-old said that his body has “never felt better,” after suffering a partially torn lat in an April game against the Washington Nationals, causing him to appear in just seven games total.
“All my workouts right now are being programmed by Eric Cressey and Shane Rye,” he said. “It’s my first offseason working with them after working with them a little bit during the season. I feel like those guys are second to none in the business in terms of, not only baseball players, but just general public or any other sport.”
Syndergaard said he has known who Cressey was since his time with the Toronto Blue Jays, but said his contact with him was limited due to the trainer being based primarily in Boston.
“Those guys are at the top of their game and are always trying to learn more about the human body and how it functions,” he said. “I’m still lifting heavy, but in a smarter way. Last year was not necessarily the most smart thing I was supposed to be doing in terms of exercises.
“For example, last year, I was doing a lot of pull-ups which is primarily a lat exercise. This year, I haven’t done a pull-up yet. It’s different, it’s still taxing workouts, but I have never felt better.”
The right-hander also said that his throwing program this offseason will be more structured, with him having mostly “winged it” in the past. He is also working on becoming a more well-rounded athlete and more flexible. Syndergaard also noted that he felt the way he does now in his final start against the Philadelphia Phillies at the end of the season.
Monday, Syndergaard said he was at a gym he works out at and the Canadian Olympic sprint coach was there and he worked with Syndergaard on his sprint mechanics.
“While I don’t plan on becoming an Olympic sprinter anytime soon, he will help me stop running like a ‘fat guy in flip flops,'” he said.
Finally, I asked Syndergaard if hitting the 200 innings plateau is a goal of his and he said absolutely, but some things are out of his control. What he wants to focus on primarily is just going out there every fifth day and leaving it all on the line.
At the end of the day, the hope is that Syndergaard can see this past season as an aberration and build off his 2016 campaign where he went 14-9 with a 2.60 ERA, 2.29 FIP and 1.149 WHIP in 31 games (30 started).
