Mets' Kodai Senga's window to return to the majors this season is closing
The Mets' Kodai Senga looks on during the third inning against the Miami Marlins at Citi Field on Aug. 31. Credit: Jim McIsaac
The window for Kodai Senga to contribute to any potential playoff run continues to shrink, and it’s headlining a series of difficult and likely season-defining decisions facing manager Carlos Mendoza and the Mets’ front office.
After a promising first start with Triple-A Syracuse last week, Senga, who accepted a demotion to solve the curious case of his wonky mechanics, regressed Thursday, allowing four runs and six hits with two walks, four strikeouts, a hit-by-pitch and a wild pitch in 3 2⁄3 innings.
Perhaps most concerningly, he continued to showcase a notable dip in velocity, with his fastball dropping as low as 91.2 mph (his major-league season average is 94.7) and with similar diminished results across his ghost fork and cutter.
With the minor-league regular season ending Sunday and Syracuse unlikely to make the playoffs, the organization will have to look for opportunities for him to continue to face live batters (Senga isn’t permitted to do so with the big-league club because he is not currently on the roster).
“Stuff-wise, [he] was down, whether it was the velo [or] execution, [and] the secondary pitches were not sharp,” Mendoza said Friday. “Health-wise, he’s 100% fine. There’s no issues with him. He’s not favoring anything. It’s just that we haven’t been able to help him, whether it’s mechanics or execution, whatever the case may be here . . . ”
Senga, who led the National League in ERA well into June, has struggled since his return from a hamstring strain in July, pitching to a 5.90 ERA in nine starts. A regimented pitcher, he’s unlikely to be a viable option out of the bullpen, and his spot is further threatened by Jonah Tong’s strong bounce-back outing against the Padres on Thursday.
Asked about using Senga out of the bullpen, Mendoza said it was too early to have those conversations.
“Results always matter,” president of baseball operations David Stearns said earlier this week when asked about Senga’s possible path back to the majors. “And it’s, where’s the stuff? Has the stuff ticked up to the point where we feel comfortable that it’s going to consistently get major-league hitters out?”
With the answer to that question, at least for now, being “no,’’ the Mets face other decisions. While they’ve yet to clinch a playoff spot, they were in a favorable position heading into this weekend’s three-game set against the Nationals (an 86.9% chance of clinching a wild-card spot, according to FanGraphs). If the season ended today, they’d face the Dodgers in Los Angeles in a best-of-three Wild Card Series.
Teams can carry 13 pitchers on their playoff roster, and obviously, only three can start in that opening round. This is somewhat complicated by the fact that the Mets’ best starters of late have been rookies who, before Brandon Sproat took the hill Friday, had made a combined 12 major-league starts.
Mendoza acknowledged that using any of them out of the bullpen would be a tough ask, particularly Sproat and Tong, who have very limited experience in relief. They otherwise would be the most logical options, given that Nolan McLean has dominated as a starter.
“It’s different,” Mendoza said. “I’m not sure we’ll go that route, but again, everything is on the table, especially when we’re talking about the playoffs. I want to continue to say that we’ve got to get there, right? And then we’ll have a lot of discussions and we’ll see. At the end of the day, we’ll make the decision that’s best for the player and the team.”
Notes & quotes: Sean Manaea, who’s on paternity leave, has been able to maintain his in-between-starts regimen and is in play to pitch Sunday. The Mets should know for sure on Saturday. He’s expected to piggyback that game with Clay Holmes . . . Tyrone Taylor (left hamstring strain) played in a rehab game for Syracuse on Friday and will do so again on Sunday in their regular-season finale. The Mets then will have to decide how to manage their outfield around Cedric Mullins, Jose Siri and Taylor . . . The Mets are still waiting on medical reports on Reed Garrett (elbow) and Tylor Megill (arm tightness), but regardless, their regular seasons are over, and the possibility of either pitching again this year is in severe jeopardy.
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
