Noah Syndergaard was at Citi Field earlier this season for the Futures Game — where he looked very impressive in his short time on the mound. I was already in love with him as a prospect before I saw him on the mound at Citi Field — an actual glimpse into the future — and he made his return to Citi Field last night to receive a Sterling Award. If you missed the announcement of Sterling Awards, you can read up on that right here. Syndergaard was given a co-award for Binghamton with closer Jeff Walters.

The dominant young pitching version of the Norse God Thor, Syndergaard is figuratively knocking on the door to Citi Field — since the main entrance doesn’t actually have a door. So what did he have to say about the steps he needs to make before that eventual call-up?

“I feel like right now I have a plus fastball with the command to go with it, and a plus curveball,” Syndergaard said Friday at Citi Fiel , where he received a Sterling Award as the top performer with the B-Mets. “Right now, I’ve shown pretty good signs of improving the changeup. I just don’t throw it that often. There are certain situations where I really don’t need to throw the changeup.

He even threw in a compliment to Glenn Abbott, the B-Mets pitching coach, when discussing the development of his change-up:

“That’s something Abby [Binghamton pitching coach Glenn Abbott] and I worked on in Binghamton — no matter if you don’t need it, you’ve still got to develop it. That’s the big picture. You don’t want to pitch in Double-A or Triple-A. Ultimately you want to pitch in the big leagues.”

The bottom line is that Syndergaard is close — and his fastball/curve combo is absolutely devastating. I can’t wait for the day when he makes his MLB debut — which will almost undoubtedly be during the 2014 MLB season. A healthy Matt Harvey could find himself surrounded by Zack Wheeler and Noah Syndergaard as the Mets look to put the entire NL on notice with a revamped and homegrown rotation.

(Photo Credit: Kelly Madden)