Another tough break for Thor.
Noah Syndergaard tested positive for COVID-19, a source told the Daily News on Sunday. Syndergaard is vaccinated, but it is unclear if he is symptomatic.
There were no other close contacts to the team, according to the source.
Syndergaard, who turned 29 Sunday, wrote on Twitter: “This birthday is so sick.”
He was scheduled to make his second rehab start for the High-A Brooklyn Cyclones on Sunday, which was called off after he tested positive. The Mets found out about Syndergaard’s health on Saturday, per Luis Rojas. The Mets manager publicly referred to Syndergaard’s absence from his Sunday rehab start as a “non-baseball related injury” and preferred not to provide more details on the situation.
“I got to talk to him yesterday. He’s frustrated,” Rojas said.
The Mets are not sure when Syndergaard will make a rehab start again, if at all this season, given the baseball calendar. His first rehab outing was on Thursday, his first time back on the mound since a late-May setback in his Tommy John rehab.
“We haven’t said anything,” Rojas said when asked if the performance staff considered shutting down Syndergaard from ramping up. “We haven’t committed to anything yet. We’re just waiting on clarification on when his next outing will be and I think that will give us an idea of what the next step is and probably a schedule, in a sense.”
Syndergaard had Tommy John surgery in March 2020 and the expectation, before he tested positive on Sunday, was that he would return to the Mets roster before the 2021 season was over.
