Noah Syndergaard is doing what has to feel good to do as an MLB player: leave the Mets.
Syndergaard took a one-year offer from the Angels yesterday that beat the Mets qualifying offer by a few million. That ends his time in New York, where he’s spent his entire professional career. It also means that it’s time for the more predictable members of New York media to start trashing him on his way out.
Like, say, Mike Francesa! Here he was yesterday, taking a shot at Syndergaard’s health, which is always a fun and classy thing to do if you’re in sports media.
The Mets are better off without Syndergaard. In case you haven't noticed, they have been without him for years.
— Mike Francesa (@MikeFrancesa) November 19, 2021
Hey, good one.
In a move that doesn’t happen nearly often enough, Syndergaard responded appropriately:
Damn, didn't know you were still alive. Congrats.
— Noah Syndergaard (@Noahsyndergaard) November 19, 2021
He didn’t stop there yesterday, either:
FBI thought he was dead too. Might take a while
— Noah Syndergaard (@Noahsyndergaard) November 20, 2021
Today, Francesa climbed back on the tweeting horse, at 6 AM no less.
I competed every day for 35 years (and won) in my chosen profession in the greatest city in the world. Noah whined and ran away.
— Mike Francesa (@MikeFrancesa) November 20, 2021
Unfortunately for Mike, Syndergaard was still paying attention.
Only thing you've ever won is being a gas-bag Mets hating opportunist. All you've done is talk shit and spread toxic crap for a career. Congrats again sweetie, you're doing great.
— Noah Syndergaard (@Noahsyndergaard) November 20, 2021
Syndergaard continued the (warranted) trolling by retweeting this video about his new teammate, Shohei Ohtani, that brings back a brutal Francesa take from spring training 2018.
Shohei Ohtani, how it started vs how it's going: pic.twitter.com/PuDh5hXwie
— Diamond Digest (@Diamond_Digest) November 20, 2021
This is excellent athlete-media Twitter usage. It can go wrong very easily! Just yesterday, Draymond Green completely whiffed on Stan Van Gundy’s tweet here, for example:
Humility.
— Stan Van Gundy (@realStanVG) November 19, 2021
Obviously Van Gundy was agreeing with Draymond, though that agreement was misinterpreted:
Appreciate the advice Champ https://t.co/7TBqZX8f78
— Draymond Green (@Money23Green) November 19, 2021
We’ll have to see if Francesa decides to let this one go or if he tries one more time before the weekend is out.