Guardians designate Noah Syndergaard for assingment

After only a handful of starts, the Noah Syndergaard era has come to an end.  

The Cleveland Guardians designated Syndergaard for assignment following their 10-7 win over the Toronto Blue Jays Sunday afternoon. This contest was Syndergaard’s last appearance in a Guardians uniform, allowing five runs on four hits and three walks while striking out three in 6 innings. 

Syndergaard was up and down on the mound during his time in Cleveland, with most appearances being of the down variety. In starts where he allowed more than one run, Syndergaard gave up 18 runs on 14 hits, 10 of which were home runs, in 22.1 innings. While this may sound like cherry-picking stats, this was the case in four of his six appearances since being acquired by the Guardians, so this is not exactly a rare occurrence.

It may be frustrating to see the only player Cleveland got in return for Amed Rosario 1. Be designated for assignment before the end of August and 2. Pitch so poorly. But the reality was Syndergaard’s time in Cleveland was always going to be brief. There was not a realistic scenario where the man, also known as Thor, would be in Cleveland beyond this season.

With the Guardians having so many injuries in their rotation, they needed someone to eat innings, and that is exactly what they got out of Syndergaard. It was not pretty, and most of it was infuriating to watch from a fan’s perspective considering he is a shell of his former self and base-runners have the green light to run on him while he is on the mound. 

Expect the Guardians to continue pitching their core four rookies in Tanner Bibee, Gavin Williams, Logan Allen, and Xzavion Curry down the stretch with the possible return of Cal Quantrill coming sooner rather than later.