Milwaukee Brewers monitoring trade market for Noah Syndergaard, per report

The Milwaukee Brewers are being connected to one the National League’s most intriguing pitchers, Noah Syndergaard.

According to Jon Morosi, the New York Mets could be enticed to trade Thor if the price is right. Morosi goes on to say that the Brewers are watching Thor closely, waiting for the Mets to make him available.

Syndergaard is having one of his worst statistical seasons since debuting in the Major League. In 17 games and 105.2 innings, Thor is sitting on a middling 4.68 ERA with just 8.6 K/9. The strikeouts are well below the 9.7 career average Thor carried into the season.

While his ERA isn’t great, FIP gives him a more favorable 3.98 and DRA gives him a 3.29. Those are substantially closer to baseball’s expectations of Syndergaard compared to his career.

Syndergaard is seeing less success with his fastball and slider this season, two pitchers that have been his bread and butter in the majors. His wFB sits at -2.8 and his wSL is at -4.3, both career lows. He has been throwing his slider significantly less this season, using it just 10% of the time compared to his 20% average. He has shifted that usage to his changeup and four-seam fastball.

Thor has also seen a very slight decrease in velocity over the last two seasons. In 2016 and 2017, he sat near or above 99 mph. In 2018 and 2019, he’s closer to 98 mph, which is still exceptionally high.

Regardless, he’s controlled for the next two seasons after 2019 and his history demands a huge cost. If Milwaukee wants to trade for Syndergaard the Mets will certainly demand Hiura in return.