CHICAGO — The Guardians and Dodgers had discussed the Amed Rosario-Noah Syndergaard swap, but they hadn’t made enough progress to prevent Rosario from joining the Guardians’ team flight to Chicago on Wednesday evening.
Terry Francona was about to chow down on Chick-fil-A from his seat on the plane when his phone rang. The two sides had agreed to the terms of the deal. Francona met Rosario on the tarmac before the shortstop boarded the plane and ushered him beneath an overhang to discuss the situation.
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“I wanted to be respectful to Amed,” Francona said, “as respectful as you can be on a tarmac.”
This was the second time, Francona said, that he had to deliver a player some career-altering news before a flight departure. Once, when at the helm in Boston, he shouted to a player he was being optioned to the minors, with the plane’s engine roaring beside them.
Syndergaard, meanwhile, caught a redeye to Chicago, where he met his new teammates and coaches at Guaranteed Rate Field. He met with Francona and pitching coach Carl Willis on Thursday afternoon and then played catch. He’ll log a more intense bullpen session on Friday and is in line to make his Guardians debut Monday night in Houston.
“He’s a guy with a really good pedigree,” Francona said. “He’s kind of fallen on hard times this year. I think what Carl said to him was really good. We asked him, ‘What’s important to you?’ So often, I think managers and pitching coaches start out and they just talk. We wanted him to talk. And he did, he did a good job. Carl was like, ‘OK, let’s simplify things. I’m not gonna say anything to you right away. I want to watch. I don’t want to just jump in and make shit up.’
“We told him, we just want to see the best of him. If we see that, everybody’s going to be happy.”
Syndergaard’s schedule sets up Cleveland’s rotation in this manner:
Friday: Xzavion Curry
Saturday: Logan Allen
Sunday: Aaron Civale
Monday: Syndergaard
Tuesday: Gavin Williams
Wednesday: Tanner Bibee
As for the shortstop position, Gabriel Arias and Tyler Freeman will audition for the new opening. The Guardians also recalled outfielder Oscar Gonzalez. Francona met with the position-player group on Thursday and told them, “We’ll mix and match, maybe more than we have.” Francona wouldn’t commit to Andrés Giménez being the new, everyday No. 2 hitter, despite penciling Giménez’s name in that spot the past two days.
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“I don’t want to take it for granted, just the fact that there’s more playing time,” Arias said. “I’m going to do what I have to to work hard and provide results because I know the organization has several very competitive, good players on the infield, so I want to make sure I put the effort in to try to help the team.”
Rosario, for better or worse, had a stranglehold on the shortstop gig for two and a half years. He was a streaky hitter who torched lefties and didn’t fare as well against righties, and his defense cratered in 2023. Rosario did steal 40 bases in 44 attempts during his Cleveland tenure, and his relentless hustle helped to fuel the Guardians’ aggressive brand of baseball last season.
“I reminded them of that today,” Francona said. “That’s how we have to play. Losing a guy like that, we have to continue (to do it). Amed was a big, big part of that.”
Syndergaard, meanwhile, is searching for something resembling his old, All-Star form. The 30-year-old registered a 7.16 ERA in 12 starts for the Dodgers this season, with career lows in whiff rate and chase rate, and he was brutally honest about his performance along the way, offering such summations as: “I would give my hypothetical first-born to be the old me again.”
A candid Syndergaard met with a few reporters from the bench in the visitors’ dugout on Thursday, his first day with his fifth team in the last 21 months.
On his initial feelings about the trade: “It’s definitely been a lot of emotions. It’s a balance between a lot of excitement and a little bit of just disappointment in myself because my time with the Dodgers didn’t necessarily go as planned. Didn’t really blossom into the pitcher I wanted to be. But maybe just a fresh start with the Guardians is really all I need to bounce back and just start fresh.”
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On what the team told him about expectations and what lies ahead: “I wouldn’t say there’s much expectation. I just really appreciate the already open and honest dialogue that I’m getting from Tito. I understand it’s a really young team. I just want to add some value in veteran leadership to the young guys and just work on being the best version of Noah I can be.”
On his health and his rehab assignment: “Health-wise I’m good. Actually, yesterday when I found out I was traded, I was like 30 seconds from going out the door to catch a flight to make a rehab start in Reno. I was supposed to throw six innings, 90 pitches today. But the blister (air quotes) was kind of a blessing in disguise just because I needed a little mental reset. Like I said, it’s kind of hard to change the tires on a car while it’s still moving. You’re trying to compete every five days and also trying to work on things in between starts. You only get one opportunity in between starts for your side sessions to really work on some things. That was just a nice break to adjust some issues. I definitely feel a lot better than I was, mechanically. I have some things to continue to work on, but I’m really excited to be here.”
On what he thinks will help him get to where he wants to be: “I think over the last two years, I’ve had a lot of cooks in the kitchen. I’ve had a lot of people thinking that they can come out and fix me. Some of them might have been right, some of them were right, but the translations weren’t getting to me. I think it’s going out there and not really listening to what people think I should or should not be doing, but going out there and feeling and doing what feels good and natural to me. Some people have been trying to get me to do certain things that haven’t been characteristic to how I used to pitch. I mean, you can look at the videos of the last two years and the videos in the past and there’s some structural differences that are pretty blatant. So, I’ll continue to work on those.”
On his knowledge of the Guardians’ track record with pitchers: “Yeah, I mean it’s unfortunate to see what’s happened to Shane (Bieber) and Triston (McKenzie). Those guys are a lot of fun to watch and can really help out with some wins. The rest of the young staff, Logan Allen, Tanner Bibee and (Gavin) Williams, it’s really exciting to be a part of. I’ve been in the league for eight years now and I’m surrounded by these young guys. It kind of gives me a spark of energy in life just being able to watch — like, you get to a certain point in the big leagues where you try to still make it a fun kids’ game, but you’ve reached a point where it’s like, you’re in this long enough that it becomes a career. Watching the young guys go out there, you still see a lot of that youth spark that you kind of get away from as you progress in baseball.”
On whether there are any familiar faces in the clubhouse: “I know Daniel Norris a little bit from time with the Blue Jays. Josh Bell is a local Texas kid. I’m meeting a lot of new faces for the first time. Last year, I was traded to the Phillies. If I didn’t know the person, I at least had played against them for a while. This is just, it’s different, but it’s a good feeling.”
On playing for Francona: “I’ve been a big fan of Tito ever since he was with the Red Sox. That team back in the early 2000s, that’s when I started to develop a love for the game. So there’s a strong emotional attachment to having him as a manager now.”
On if there’s anything he can take away from his time with the Phillies and their run to the World Series last season: “The Phillies last year, they were a super talented team but they didn’t win the division. That’s really exciting about playoff baseball is it’s not necessarily about the most talented team or the team with the most wins, it’s just a team that plays as a team and just gets hot at the right time.”
(Top photo of Noah Syndergaard: Katelyn Mulcahy / Getty Images)
