Kevin Kernan

Kevin Kernan

MLB

Noah Syndergaard turns heads again in Mets scrimmage

PORT ST. LUCIE — Hope officially arrived for the Mets on Thursday morning at Tradition Field in the form of a 6-foot-6, 230-pound right-hander who has been nicknamed “Viking” by some of his teammates.

David Wright, whose work was complete on a back field, made sure to slip into the third-base dugout to watch Noah Syndergaard pitch in an intrasquad game.

This was a top-step event as the dugout was packed with players, all wanting to get a closer look at Syndergaard. Intrasquad games rarely are top-step events.

“It was impressive,’’ Wright said. “He looked good, judging by some of the swings, he looked very good, but so did [Jeurys] Familia and [Steven] Matz. I’d rather see Syndergaard against other teams when hitters get a little more ready, and I’ll be able to make a better judgement, but what I’ve seen so far looks like the real deal.’’

Wright had more to say.

“Our strength in our organization is our starting pitching,’’ Wright told The Post. “In my tenure, the organizations that turn things around the quickest — San Francisco comes to mind, Washington comes to mind — is through young power pitching, and it seems like we have plenty of that.’’

If that pitching continues to develop.

“You don’t need a super-powerful offense to win games, and that’s the mold of the San Francisco Giants,’’ Wright said. “You got lights-out starting pitching, you play good defense and you score runs when you need to score runs.

“What we’ve talked about from Day One is starting pitching, so far so good, but by no means are we kind of done now. As good as Noah may be, he still needs to develop, he still needs to get better. The same with Zack Wheeler.

“You just don’t get to the point where you have a lot of these top prospects knocking on the door and then it’s done,’’ Wright said, being veteran voice of reason. “Have we taken the first step, yes, but are we at a point where these guys have established themselves as [Tim] Lincecum, [Matt] Cain and [Madison] Bumgarner? Of course not. They need to excel at the major league level before you can say we have a dominant National League staff.

“We have pieces. Now it’s a matter of fitting those pieces together to form that puzzle.’’

Syndergaard is a major piece of the puzzle. He flashed a fastball in the 95-97 mph range and a 81-82 mph curveball that was filthy — a pitch he has refined in the last year by altering his release point, putting him on a much more golden prospect path. A dose of reality here: Syndergaard was facing a lineup of Mets prospects and 4-A players. He surrendered four singles and one run over two innings, but as one scout said behind home plate after his first inning of work, “He’s a man.’’

If Syndergaard continues to excel, he will not be in the minors for long, unless the Mets want to slow his arbitration and free-agent clock, and, of course, limit his innings.

“I kind of shocked myself a little bit,’’ admitted Syndergaard, who will start Monday in Disney against the Braves with his parents watching from the stands.

He also noted, “It’s a little difficult playing against your own team, you don’t really want to hit the guy. It might be a little different playing the Braves, not that I want to hit them, but it’s going to be easier going inside.’’

Syndergaard presents an immense fear factor.

Brandon Nimmo, a former first-round pick, offered this bird’s-eye view of Syndergaard after striking out and flying to left:

“He’s so big up there, so right away he feels like he is only 48 feet away. He really reaches out and uses his size with that two-seam fastball at the knees. He’s just a very powerful pitcher up there, a very powerful image. I think he is going to be an amazing pitcher.’’

This is one Mets’ image, as Wright noted, that is the real deal.