Major League Baseball

Mets: Noah Syndergaard Returns, Bigger and Better Than Ever

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 7:50 p.m. ET

Fansided, Mike Parchinsky/FanSided via Call to the Pen

After a devastating loss in the NL Wild Card Game in 2016, Noah Syndergaard isn’t leaving anything to chance in 2017. The Mets right-hander has returned with a vengeance.

Going into the offseason, he set a goal of raising his weight from 237 pounds to 250. With just a few days remaining until pitchers and catchers report, Noah Syndergaard has surpassed his goal and is weighing in at an astounding 253 pounds with just 13.5 percent body fat. That’s down from 15.1 percent at the beginning of the offseason, according to a recent feature in Sports Illustrated.

This winter transformation is just part of a lifelong journey of Noah’s that began the summer before his junior year of high school at Mansfield Legacy High in a suburb of Dallas, Texas. In that summer, Syndergaard began a workout regime at his local YMCA based on various workouts and activities he read in Muscle & Fitness.

His regime began as a way to cope with typical teenage insecurities about his weight, but soon it became a life style.

“I’d always been self-conscious of my weight, how I appeared to other people,” explained Syndergaard to SI. “I wanted to change that. Then I got hooked.”

Whether it be at the YMCA as a teenager or at the EXOS Training Facility in Frisco, Texas, Syndergaard’s dedication to achieving peak physical fitness has never waned. Syndergaard spent this winter in intense two-hour-a-day offseason workouts with fellow major leaguers such as Shelby Miller and Cameron Rupp. Through these workouts, Syndergaard has transformed his body into a well-oiled baseball machine revving on all cylinders.

Syndergaard found himself the mainstay of a rotation riddled with injuries during the 2016 season. In his 2016 campaign, Syndergaard struck out 218 batters in 183.2 innings, averaging 10.7 strikeouts per nine innings pitched. In addition, he posted an ERA of 2.60 with just 11 home runs allowed, for a rate of just 0.5 long balls per nine innings.

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On top of these stellar regular season numbers, he also performed at an amazing level in the Wild Card Game against the San Francisco Giants. In that game, one that will go down as one of the greatest pitching matchups in playoff history, Syndergaard threw seven shutout innings, allowing just two hits while striking out 10. However, Syndergaard and his dominance was no match for Madison Bumgarner, who outlasted him and threw a complete game shutout.

As spring training approaches, the hopes of Mets fans across the country begin to rise. Hoping that this year will finally be their year. Hoping that this year, they will finally make it over the 31-year championship hump.

Syndergaard is especially looking forward to getting to compete again. Reaching the major leagues has been a dream of his since his freshman year of high school when he was still fighting to secure a place on the team. He has made it and is excelling. He shows no signs of letting up or allowing his opponents to get the better of him.

For more on Syndergaard’s transformation from a pudgy five-foot-nothing teenager into a six-foot-six behemoth, check out Sports Illustrated‘s profile of him here.