Report: Dodgers to sign RHP Noah Syndergaard to 1 year, $13 million deal

Two moves in one day? Andrew Friedman must be feeling frisky, because I can assure you he doesn’t really care what the fans think about the Dodgers’ offseason thus far. From Jeff Passan of ESPN:

With the way the Dodgers have been avoiding spending any real money — present or future — this almost seemed inevitable.

Noah Syndergaard, 30, is getting a $13 million deal for one season, with a chance to make $1.5 million in incentives.

Meh.

Shane is going to have an in-depth write-up about Syndergaard (probably tomorrow), but for now, I’ll give you some surface-level stuff.

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Syndergaard signed with the Angels last winter on a 1-year, $21 million deal. He was traded to the Phillies at the trade deadline. At both stops, he was decidedly mediocre. He had a 3.83 ERA and 3.95 FIP with the Angels and a 4.12 ERA and 3.66 FIP with the Phillies. The minor improvement with Philly is a little encouraging, but for a guy who used to routinely strike out hitters at a mid-to-high-20% clip, his 16.8 K% last season is a big red flag. Luckily, he minimized the damage by walking just 5.5% of the hitters he faced.

If anyone is going to be able to get him back to his 2015-19 self, it’s Mark Prior and the Dodgers. In those five years, he was one of the best pitchers in Major League Baseball:

  • 3.31 ERA
  • 2.92 FIP
  • 20.7 K-BB%
  • 0.79 HR/9
  • 18.7 fWAR

The Dodgers’ rotation looks a little better at this point, but it’s still lacking.

  1. Julio Urias
  2. Clayton Kershaw
  3. Dustin May
  4. Tony Gonsolin
  5. Syndergaard

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We’ll see what the Dodgers can do. I’m lukewarm on the deal overall. I mean, there’s no such thing as a bad 1-year deal, but I’m skeptical he can return to form. Also, he’s kind of a jerk. But we know that doesn’t stop Friedman from signing players, as long as they can play ball good.

About Dustin Nosler

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Dustin Nosler began writing about the Dodgers in July 2009 on his blog, Feelin' Kinda Blue, and co-hosted a weekly podcast with Jared Massey called Dugout Blues. He was a contributor/editor at The Hardball Times and True Blue LA. He graduated from California State University, Sacramento with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a minor in digital media. While at CSUS, he worked for the student-run newspaper The State Hornet for three years, culminating with a one-year term as editor-in-chief. He resides in Stockton, California.