NEW YORK -- The Toronto Blue Jays drafted Noah Syndergaard with the 38th overall pick in the 2010 MLB draft out of high school in Texas. Now, Syndergaard will face his former organization on Monday, when the New York Mets open a home-and-home series with the Jays.
Syndergaard would have missed a matchup with Toronto, but the Mets slotted in Dillon Gee for a spot start Sunday, pushing Syndergaard back a day.
Syndergaard was acquired with Travis d'Arnaud on Dec. 17, 2012 in the trade that sent R.A. Dickey to Toronto. Dickey is scheduled to face the Mets on Thursday.
"It doesn't really matter to me. It's just another game," Syndergaard said. "I mean, it'll be kind of cool to pitch against the team that traded me."
Syndergaard said he knows Aaron Sanchez, Tuesday's starter for the Jays, "pretty well."
Said Syndergaard: "He and I have kind of drifted apart a little bit. But we're the type of friendship, we really don't have to keep in touch, but when we see each other, it's like we're best friends all over again."
Asked if it's an opportunity to flaunt what his former team is missing, Syndergaard insisted, "I don't pay much attention to that. That's long gone."
D'Arnaud, who has been traded twice, said both times the GM who had dealt him called to explain the move -- Ruben Amaro with the Philadelphia Phillies and Alex Anthopoulos with the Jays. So he has no ill will. Both times d'Arnaud was traded for a Cy Young winner -- Roy Halladay and then Dickey.
"I haven't had any real sour taste on my tongue with either of them," d'Arnaud said. "... Any time I play against the Phillies, I get a little extra amped up. So we'll see what happens."