PORT ST. LUCIE — Knowledge is power. And Noah Syndergaard continues to learn more about himself as a person anไd a pitcher.
On a breezy 84-degree Thursday, a shirtles🗹s Syndergaard joined his teammates at Met൲s pre-camp.
This winter, Syndergaard relocated f💙rom Texas to Los Angele🦩s, where he worked with an impressive group of pitchers. He embraced the Mets’ new analytical approach. As a result he said he is more advanced than he usually is when he arrives to camp. And there is room to improve as Syndergaard was 10-8 with a 4.28 ERA last season and had much trouble holding runners.
Syndergaard — who also improved himself off the field by entering and winning a CNBC stock market challenge — looked back at last September’s pitcher-catcher quandary and said he has grown from the situation.
In many ways we are looking at a new and better Syndergaard, whose pitching p♑romise is unlimited.
“It was a top-notch pitching program the performance people put together fo𝓰r me,’’ Syndergaard told The Post. “I followed it to a T🔯. Previous offseasons I would go into spring training lackadaisical on the mound, figuring, ‘Oh, I will just figure it out there.’
“Now I’ve had 10 mound sessions under my belt already. Our analytics guys came out to LA a few♔ times to really figure things out. I have a much better grasp now on everything.’’
Syndergaard, 27, is excited with the work he has done with new pitching coach Jeremy Hefner and believes strongly in the Mets rotation, pointing to the “incredible accomplishment’’ of Jacob deGrom winning back-to-back Cy Youngs. He said the Mets offense is strong and the bullpen will be be🍷tter.
In September, Syndergaard and the Mets sparred over the personal catcher issue. He was not as comfortable wo๊rking with Wilson Ramos, but an underst﷽anding was reached. In the end, communication around the team improved.
“Any time you come across gradient change, it’s going t👍o be a little bit of a learning moment,’’ Syndergaard said. “I think it definitely happened for the better. It was like me struggling in 2014 in the minors. It’s all about how you bounce back from it.
“We are all here with the saꦜme goal in mind, and that is a 2020 championshꦐip.’’
As for the CNBC stock draft challenge, Syndergaard credited his partner, Harold Kaufman, the Mets vice president of communications, as their stocks shot up 59 percent, the best mark in the three-year history of the event. Syndergaard beat a grou🌃p that included Kevin O’Leary, Maria Ho, Tim Seymour and Bobby Flay.
“I couldn’t have done it without Harold,’’ Syndergaard said. “It all started because I don’t want to be known as Noah Syndergaard — just strictly the baseball player. I want to dive into different categories of the world, I guess. Who knows what I’ll be doing whe🐼n I retire? I just want to branch out and learn as much as I can and be involved in a lot of different things.’’
His winning🌸 three stocks were Tesla, Amazon and Nike.
“I’m endorsed by Nike,’’ Thor said. “Amazon, I probably have an Amazon package coming to my doorstep today. I don’t own a Tesla, but I really admire what Elon Musk doeꦯs in the field of innovation and technology.’’
It was a working offseason for Syndergaard.
“The amount of pleasure I had this offseason was pretty dismal,’’ he said. “Most weekends I was in bed by 9 or 10 o’clock. When I was in LA, I was basically doing two-a-day, maybe three-a-day workouts. I would go to the gym in the morning, I got the body temperature rising, go throw and then do my strength training and then later in the evening I would either do Pilates or some sort of yoga. That’s just a plus because have you ever been to a Pilates class? The ratio from guys to girls is very large, and if I were a girl that is all I would do — Pilates — because it is just butt and abs and that helps everything.’’
As for the move to LA, Syndergaard said, “I just needed to be kind of around my own kind. I was kind of 𒐪alienated in Dallas. I had to drive 45 minutes to Fort Worth to work out. One day there was a tornado and the very next day it snowed, so I said I go♏t to get out of here. When I was in LA, it was sunny and beautiful every day. In LA, my agency, CAA, put together a pitchers camp.’’
Syndergaard got to work꧋💞 with fellow pitchers Lucas Giolito, Max Fried, Hunter Greene and others.
“I💦t ✨was a good group of guys,’’ Syndergaard said, “and we all had positive energy to train with one another and evolve.’’
That is the key.