Photo Credit: Keith Allison
For the second consecutive year the Brewers have passed the mathematical halfway point of the MLB season with the lead in the NL Central, clinging to a small advantage over the Cubs despite losing back-to-back games against the Reds on Saturday and Sunday.
Last time the Brewers opted not to make major moves at the non-waiver trade deadline and were unable to keep pace with a red-hot Cubs team down the stretch. It remains to be seen if they’ll opt to try a similar path again in 2018.
In the meantime, however, rumors continue to swirl connecting the Brewers to prominent and potentially available starting pitchers. Over the weekend John Harper of the New York Daily News suggested a deal sending Mets ace Noah Syndergaard to Milwaukee in exchange for Brewers top prospects Keston Hiura, Corbin Burnes and Corey Ray.
If the Brewers are looking to make a public relations splash, acquiring the pitcher many fans refer to as “Thor” would certainly do it. Syndergaard became a national star as a 22-year-old rookie in 2015, when he posted a 3.24 ERA with 10 strikeouts per nine innings during the regular season and made four postseason appearances in the Mets’ World Series run. He would also be a player the Brewers could keep around for a while: He’s currently in his first of four arbitration seasons (he qualified early as a “Super 2” player in 2018) and remains under team control through 2021.
Acquiring Syndergaard, however, would be a remarkably risky move given his recent history. Syndergaard was limited to just seven appearances and 30 1/3 innings in 2017 due to a partially torn lat muscle, and he’s missed the entire month of June this season with a strained ligament in his right index finger. Syndergaard pitched a combined 359 2/3 innings in his age 22 and 23 seasons but has taken the mound just 18 times in the season and a half since.
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While pitching and rehabbing in New York Syndergaard has been cared for by a Mets training staff that was, to put it mildly, much maligned. The organization revamped their medical staff before this season, but Syndergaard was one of many cases where the previous regime drew negative attention, including a story that he refused an MRI just two days before leaving a game with the aforementioned lat tear last May. Any move to acquire Syndergaard would almost certainly require a very thorough physical and investigation of his injury history.
Furthermore, the Brewers should be leery of paying the “New York premium.” Syndergaard became a national star during his emergence in 2015 and 2016 but that rise was certainly aided by the fact that he was a member of the Mets and playing his home games in front of America’s largest media market. He’s clearly talented but he wouldn’t be this kind of household name if he had debuted with, for example, the Royals or Twins.
Finally, Harper’s suggested deal would be a difficult risk for the Brewers to accept because the three prospects the organization would be giving up are all very close to being big league ready. Hiura and Ray are the Brewers’ last two first round picks, and both have already reached the AA level. Burnes, the Brewers’ fourth round pick in 2016, is a step ahead of them in AAA. No prospect is ever truly “can’t miss,” but giving up three highly regarded players that are this close to the majors would virtually ensure that Brewers fans would get to spend years wondering what might have been if Burnes, Hiura and Ray had remained within the organization.
Acquiring Noah Syndergaard from the Mets would certainly make a statement that the Brewers are “going for it” in 2018. Syndergaard’s injury history and the likely price tag, however, both suggest a noteworthy possibility that it would end up being a regrettable transaction.
