Getty Kodai Senga is expected to lead the Mets' rotation this season. An early injury will likely lead him to starting 2024 on the injured list.
The New York Mets remade their 2024 starting rotation with a handful of short-term deals. President of baseball operations David Stearns made those moves with the thought that second-year hurler Kodai Senga would be the club’s ace.
Unfortunately, he probably won’t be starting the season in manager Carlos Mendoza’s big-league rotation.
It was reported on February 21 that Senga was undergoing tests while dealing with “overall arm fatigue.” The right-hander underwent an MRI, which revealed a moderate capsule strain in the back of his shoulder, per MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo.
Stearns told the media that Senga will be shut down until his symptoms subside. There is also no current timetable for his return. While things could turn around quickly regarding his recovery, it’d be a race against the clock for the Japanese hurler to get ready. Opening Day is set for March 28 at Citi Field when the Mets take on the Milwaukee Brewers.
Senga Is the Most Important Part of the Mets’ Rotation
Stearns spent a considerable amount of time rebuilding the Mets’ rotation. Senga and Jose Quintana were both holdovers from the 2023 squad. However, the rest of the starting five include new faces.
Luis Severino, Sean Manaea and Adrian Houser were all acquired to round out this area of the roster. Every hurler is important to a team’s overall success. But when it comes to New York, this unit was put together with the idea of Senga leading the way.
He finished second in the 2023 National League Rookie of the Year voting, seventh in the NL Cy Young Award voting and also earned an All-Star Game selection. He stayed healthy throughout his rookie campaign, taking the ball for 29 starts and twirling 166.1 innings. That resulted in a 12-7 record with a 2.98 ERA, 1.22 WHIP and 202 strikeouts.
Could New York Jump Into Free Agency for Another Starter?
Now that Senga is likely to start this season on the Injured List, could New York jump into free agency to make up for his loss? Outside of making an aggressive pursuit for Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Stearns and Co. have kept a disciplined approach in building the 2024 roster.
That will continue as we head toward Opening Day, as DiComo relayed from Stearns. The Mets’ top executive said Senga’s injury doesn’t increase their chances of signing a free-agent hurler.
This makes sense. While there is no timetable for Senga’s return, it sounds like there’s hope this is a short-term issue. Turning around and giving Blake Snell or Jordan Montgomery a lot of money on even a short-term deal would go against everything they’ve done this offseason.
DiComo pointed to the Mets’ rotation depth as a reason why they won’t look to free agency. He mentioned Tylor Megill as the likely benefactor of this unfortunate news. Joey Lucchesi, Jose Butto and Max Kranick are also mentioned as options.
Megill will be an interesting hurler to follow throughout spring training. He added two new pitches to his arsenal during the offseason. One of them is the “American spork,” which is a split-fingered fastball that’s modeled after Senga’s famous “Ghost Fork” pitch.