New York Mets: Noah Syndergaard Already Looking Like Future Star

The New York Mets have several young, talented pitchers in their organization. Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom and Zack Wheeler have already showcased their abilities in the majors in the past couple of years, but their newest addition to the rotation has a chance to be better than any of them.

Nicknamed Thor and known for his hammer curveball, it has only taken four starts for Noah Syndergaard to entrench himself as a dominant big league starting pitcher.

He does it with three excellent offerings: a fastball that regularly sits in the upper 90s to go along with a filthy curveball and changeup. Syndergaard does not allow opposing hitters to get comfortable in the box, and he keeps them off balance because of his overpowering velocity and competent off-speed pitches.

His teammates are certainly taking note. Thirty-six-year-old Michael Cuddyer is among those veterans who are impressed.

"What's not to like?" Cuddyer told Tyler Kepner of the New York Times. "He has 96 to 99 miles an hour, commands the strike zone, can throw the curveball for a strike, throws the changeup for a strike. There's not many guys in baseball, nonetheless rookies, with stuff like that that's able to command it."

He mixes his pitches well, too. Some rookies have a tendency to rely heavily on their best pitch, but Syndergaard does not have that problem. He has thrown his fastball 65 percent of the time and off-speed the other 35 percent, according to FanGraphs.

His blend of velocity and deception has contributed greatly to keeping the ball off of the hitters' barrel. Of all of the balls that have been put in play, only 27.4 percent of them have been hit hard, per FanGraphs. To put that in perspective, when Clayton Kershaw won both the Cy Young and MVP awards in 2014, his hard hit percentage was 24.3.

Kathy Willens/Associated Press

The 22-year-old righty from Mansfield, Texas, has also showed promise at the plate. Against the Phillies back on May 27, he went a perfect 3-for-3 with a mammoth home run. He also threw 7.1 sparkling innings off the mound with six strikeouts.

Syndergaard's stat line currently sits at 2-2 with a 2.55 ERA to go along with a sterling 22-5 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Ultimately, Thor is not Kershaw. Yet.

Syndergaard may not ever reach Kershaw's level of elite, but in a few years he will surely be an ace. Harvey will likely be the Mets' No. 1 starter in the future, but Syndergaard will not be far behind.

He is already pretty darn good. With a little seasoning and experience under his belt, his potential is seemingly unlimited.

The Mets front office has to be giddy thinking about the future. With a rotation of Harvey, Syndergaard, deGrom, Wheeler and hot prospect Steven Matz, the New York team from Queens may have several postseasons appearances in its future.