Noah Syndergaard Has Some Fun With Insider's Column Ripping MLB Owners

Recently acquired Los Angeles Angels pitcher Noah Syndergaard still has a sense of humor, despite the MLB lockout that has already threatened Opening Day and perhaps the entire first month of the season.

Syndergaard delivered his jab at MLB commissioner Rob Manfred via Twitter, responding to a column from ESPN's Jeff Passan.

Noah Syndergaard, formerly of the Mets, now with the Angeles. (Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

Passan introduced his column by tweeting, "MLB did this. The owners’ arrogance. The mistreatment of players. As the league threatens to turn its lockout into a canceled Opening Day, the story of how something so very avoidable grew into Rob Manfred’s disastrous outcome."

That opened the door for Syndergaard.

"I bet Passan won’t be making the Manfred Holiday Card list this year,” Syndergaard wrote.

MLB and the players union has so far failed to reach a deal, pushing back the start of spring training and likely shortening the season. Negotiations have gone nowhere to this point.

Passan wrote that much of the lockout is a result of the owners' stubborness.

“Player pay has decreased for four consecutive years, even as industry revenues grew and franchise values soared and the would-be stewards of the game pleaded to anyone who would listen that owning a baseball team isn’t a particularly profitable venture," he wrote.

"Players’ service time has been manipulated to keep them from free agency and salary arbitration. The luxury tax, instituted to discourage runaway spending, has morphed into a de facto salary cap, and too many teams are nowhere near it anyway, instead gutting their rosters and slashing their payrolls because the game’s rules incentivize losing."

Keep in mind that insiders such as Passan make their living by receiving "sourced" transactions via player agents. Team owners generally have no use for the mainstream media. So the coverage is bound to be slanted toward the players.

And clearly, that is something players such as Syndergaard can appreciate.