Noah Syndergaard ‘doesn’t see himself having another injury’ after changes to his workout

Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard has been on the disabled list since April 28, when he left a game with a tear in his right lat muscle. As New York’s season has worn on and more players have gone on the DL, including Yoenis Cespedes and Zack Wheeler, the team has once again been criticized for its seemingly out of proportion injury list.

Back in May, ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick took a look at the Mets training staff’s medical approach, and how Jeff Wilpon could be one of the reasons that players are constantly taking trips to the disabled list after starting seasons young and healthy.

The report not only revealed that Wilpon allegedly interferes with medical decisions and training strategies all the time, micromanaging despite his lack of expertise in that area, but that some industry professionals don’t have the highest of opinions about the team’s strength and conditioning coach, Mike Barwis.

However, the team not only stood up for Barwis’ sometimes unorthodox methods but also its players’ ability to choose their overall workout regimens on their own. As Jay Bruce stated at the time:

“It’s all suggestions. Nobody’s putting a gun to your head. In the offseason, I semi-follow what the team says. But I have my own work regimen that I’ve built for 10-12 years now. It’s a team sport, but there’s so much individuality that it’s tough to put anything on one person or one way of doing things.”

That’s a quote that is even more pertinent to the Mets’ injury woes now after Syndergaard spoke about the changes he is making to his own regimen to avoid further injuries. It definitely sounds like Syndergaard may have had too much free rein in how he worked out and had to learn his lesson the hard way.

In his interview with The New York Times, Syndergaard says:

“So much of what I’ve learned this year, is that I thought I was doing what I needed to be doing. But I realize now how messed up my body was, and I’m working hard to get it back to normal.”

That includes doing too much yoga and Pilates, which he says were “not exactly sports specific,” focusing more on cardio, stretching to become a more “well-rounded” athlete, and working on his core strength and posture to avoid lower back tightness down the road.

He also qualified the amount of weightlifting he did, with previous estimates stating that he gained 17 pounds in muscle before spring training this year. Syndergaard says he wasn’t powerlifting but that when he was working with weights, certain things were incorrect about his form, especially in his lower body. He needs to build a better base to avoid such time away from the game in the future.

He’s now working with Eric Cressey, who has worked with multiple Cy Young winners before, and doing the Kinstretch program, which is “a more athletic advanced yoga” that helps with strength and flexibility.

While it’s great that Syndergaard has learned from his mistakes and altered his training regimen accordingly, it also doesn’t seem like the Mets are contributing to these lessons learned at all or steering him in a better direction.

It may be great that no one is “putting a gun to your head” as Bruce put it, but team medical staffers and conditioning coaches should also be able to right wrongs in player workouts far before they are forced into doing it themselves due to pain or injury.

Syndergaard admits he “know[s] what my weaknesses are” and “know[s] how to address them” but that should also be the Mets’ responsibility on some level, preventing these trips to the DL without outside professionals imparting all these lessons for them.