Noah Syndergaard to make Guardians debut in Houston

The wait for Noah Syndergaard to make his Cleveland Guardians debut will not be a long one. Cleveland's new starting pitcher will make his team debut in Houston on Monday.

Syndergaard has two previous starts against Houston, both of which came last season as a member of the Angels. Thor was mostly impressive in those outings, allowing three runs on five hits with four strikeouts in 9.1 innings. There was one area that Syndergaard struggled with, the free pass. The six walks issued by Syndergaard during those appearances are far from ideal. This trend cannot carry over into this start if the Guardians are going to come out on top of a team contending for the postseason.

Cleveland recently acquired Syndergaard from the Los Angeles Dodgers in a deal that sent his former New York Mets teammate Amed Rosario to the National League West. Cleveland President of Baseball Operations Chris Antonetti mentioned that the team was looking to acquire a starting pitcher and a complimentary bat ahead of the deadline. The acquisition of Syndergaard checks off the desire for a starting pitcher, although this move seems to be rooted more in removing Rosario in order to give more at-bats to some younger infield options.

2023 has not been kind to Noah Syndergaard as he currently is posting career worsts in ERA (7.17), WHIP (1.466), hits allowed per nine (11.5), home runs allowed per nine (2.0), and strikeouts per nine (6.2) in seasons with more than 10 starts for one team. The Guardians are hoping that these are correctable issues and that he can become a contributing member of their starting rotation. Cleveland does not need him to be the ace he appeared to be earlier in his career, they just need him to eat innings and take some of the workload off of the younger arms in the rotation and bullpen. This is an area that they have found themselves needing help in with Shane Bieber and Triston McKenzie being on the injured list with a return date far off in the distance.

Hopefully, Monday's start in Houston is the beginning of a rebound for Syndergaard and a continuance of the Guardians' quest for the postseason.