Major League Baseball

Terry Collins names Noah Syndergaard Mets' Opening Day starter

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 5:49 p.m. ET

Fansided, JT. Teran/FanSided via Rising Apple

Citi Field will light up on April 3rd with Thor’s presence on the mound to kick off the 2017 campaign.

Pitchers and catchers are still 13 days away from being required to report to Spring Training, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t plan ahead to Opening Day already. The New York Post is reporting that Terry Collins will be giving Noah Syndergaard the nod to take the ball to open up the season at Citi Field on April 3rd against the Atlanta Braves.

Collins spoke with The New York Post on Monday and told them about his decision calling Syndergaard “one of our big character guys.”

“He says, ‘Give me the ball,’ and he goes out and does the best he can. This kid has pitched some huge games. There was the Game 5 in L.A. when he came in and struck out Justin Turner and he had never pitched out of the bullpen before. There was Game 3 in the World Series and the wild-card last year.”

According to The Post, the decision will be officially announced once Spring Training comes to a conclusion, but it’s still nice to know ahead of time.

Indeed, Syndergaard has been everything we could have hoped for and more. He’s easily been the best and most consistent Mets pitcher over the past two seasons, so this start is very much deserved.

Our Mets Season Review of Syndergaard pegged him as the Mets ace going into 2017 after his incredibly dominant year. In 2016, his numbers were extraordinary. His 218 strikeouts in just over 183 innings pitched really showed how much he’s improved in just his second year in the league. At 24, Syndergaard’s potential is through the roof as many experts along with fans expect him to contend for the Cy Young for years to come.

Now, this is obviously no knock on Matt Harvey or Jacob deGrom. They can both be as incredibly dominating when healthy, but Thor has really been the one starter that all Mets fans have been able to count on during a must-win game.

Baseball season can’t get here soon enough, and after Collins’ latest comments, we’re even more pumped than before for to get this started.