Kodai Senga problem is too big for Mets to ignore anymore
Kodai Senga of the Mets walks to the dugout after the third inning against the Miami Marlins at Citi Field on Sunday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
The Mets officially have a Kodai Senga problem.
This didn’t happen overnight. It’s been building for a while now, dating to Senga’s mid-July return from a hamstring strain, which was supposed to be a turning point, in a positive way, for the Mets’ rotation.
But Senga has had the opposite effect, and after he sabotaged another pivotal game in Sunday’s 5-1 loss to the Marlins, there’s no more ignoring the obvious. Senga isn’t getting any better and the Mets are running out of time to play detective.
They’ve reached the brink of considering alternatives, and that syncs up well with Brandon Sproat’s resurgence at Triple-A Syracuse. He struck out nine in seven scoreless innings Saturday to give him a 2.44 ERA in his last 11 starts (70 strikeouts in 59 innings).
We’ll get to Sproat a little later. But first, let’s talk about how Sunday’s finale represented a face-saving opportunity to escape with a split of the four-game series against Miami. It was all teed up for Senga: the chance to be a hero, stop the bleeding and prove that he could make a meaningful contribution to a rotation still in need of stabilizing.
Senga badly flunked the test. He again was the model of inconsistency, giving up seven hits and five runs in 4 2/3 innings before manager Carlos Mendoza sprinted from the dugout to retrieve him in the fifth.
Afterward, Mendoza again called his pitches “non-competitive.” The question now becomes whether the Mets feel compelled to send Senga back out to the mound in another five days, because his starts have been a Groundhog Day-type experience.
Since his July 11 return, Senga has a 5.90 ERA and 1.69 WHIP and has averaged 4 1⁄3 innings in nine starts. The Mets’ rotation, which barely has been getting by thanks to the recent youth infusions of Nolan McLean and Jonah Tong, can’t keep absorbing that level of incompetence as they try to fight off the Reds for the final wild-card spot (catching the Phillies seems like a fading dream).
When Mendoza was asked about Senga taking his next scheduled turn, it was hardly a surprise that he hedged on the decision.
“We got to get him right, obviously,” Mendoza said. “I’m pretty sure we’ll have some discussion what’s next for him. Our job is to get him right, but it’s been a struggle.”
If this conversation sounds familiar, it should. Mendoza went down the same road with the ineffective Frankie Montas, who was moved behind an opener for his next turn before being permanently relegated to the bullpen (Montas will undergo Tommy John surgery and is sidelined through 2026).
Don’t be shocked if Senga gets shifted to the bullpen for the sake of fixing whatever is wrong with him. The Mets are using a six-man rotation, primarily because Senga has needed the extra day of rest, and they could always go back to five — or insert someone else such as Sproat, who was passed over with Tong’s promotion on Friday.
Senga sounds like someone who could be bracing for that possibility, and with rosters expanding Monday, another pitcher will be coming up.
“I’m working my tail off to get back to that,” he said through an interpreter. “And it’s as simple as if I’m able to do it, we’re in the postseason and I’m pitching out there. If I’m not able to, there’s no spot for me to pitch.”
No need to bring up playoff rotations just yet. The Mets have to get there first, and while we’re confident they’ll beat out the Reds during this next month, they’re still very much in troubleshooting mode for September. And Senga’s performance Sunday should put him in the proverbial crosshairs.
On sporadic occasions, he looked like his old self Sunday, getting ahead in counts and deploying his ghost fork with devastating impact. He struck out the side in the second inning and finished with six strikeouts.
But those highlights were too rare and were rendered insignificant by the severe blow-ups in between, including plenty of loud contact. Senga put the Mets in a 1-0 hole before they even got to the plate with a one-out walk, a 111-mph single by Agustin Ramirez and Otto Lopez’s sacrifice fly. The second inning featured a two-run homer by Ramirez, whose 111.5-mph missile cleared the leftfield wall in a blink and kicked off numerous rounds of booing for Senga from the sellout crowd (43,302).
The jeering continued in the fourth after a leadoff double and Heriberto Hernandez’s RBI single. The Mets helped to hasten Senga’s exit in the fifth when Brett Baty’s throwing error led to the Marlins taking a 5-0 lead, but Miami didn’t need the gift run. The damage already was done, and now we’ll see what impact this has on Senga’s immediate future.
The Mets have been thrilled with the recent call-ups of McLean and Tong, so giving Sproat a shot seems to be the next logical step now that Senga has left that door open. Plus, the front office no doubt was pleased to see Sproat have one of his best performances of the year right after the disappointment of having Tong picked over him.
“I think it was a message from Sproat to all of us that, hey, man, I can do this too,” Mendoza said.
Senga is putting out a much different vibe these days. And the Mets might have no choice but to heed those signals as well.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
