5 years agoUPDATE: Noah Syndergaard will miss 2020 season due to Tommy John surgery. New York Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard had a shaky season in 2019. He led the league in earned runs with 94 and posted a career-worst ERA of 4.28. He was a clear victim of the increased power output across the league last year. In 2018, his hard-hit rate against was 26.4%, which ranked amongst the top three percent of the league. Last year, it ballooned up to 31.2%. Meanwhile, his barrel rate more than doubled from 2018 to 2019. His 2018 barrel rate (2%) ranked amongst the top 1% of the league, while his 2018 barrel rate (4.9%) was his highest since his rookie campaign in 2015. Syndergaard's fastball hasn't been nearly as effective the past two years as it was the first three years of his career. Meanwhile, his slider also took a step back last year. He induced a swinging-strike rate of 25.1% with his slider in 2018 compared with a rate of just 18.1% in 2019. Syndergaard made minor improvements on both his strikeout rate (24.5%) and walk rate (5.9%) in 2019 compared with his 2018 clips (24.1%, 6.1%) and his 1.23 WHIP in 2019 was only a shade higher than his 1.21 WHIP in 2018. Syndergaard could be on the move either this offseason or during the season, which would likely boost his value. Regardless, he's got the upside to deliver a top-15 starting pitcher season, or better, and his downside is still someone who is usable as a middle rotation starter in just about all leagues. He currently has an ADP of around 74 and is worthy of drafting at that spot, especially if you miss out on some of the higher tier pitchers ahead of him.--Andrew Ericksen - RotoBaller