Kodai Senga has been positioned on the 15-day injured checklist and Paul Blackburn will take his subsequent flip via the rotation. However as of Friday afternoon, the Mets had no different data on their injured ace.
The membership despatched Senga for an MRI on Friday afternoon, with Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns addressing the media across the identical time the right-hander was being seen by docs. The severity of the proper hamstring pressure that Senga suffered Thursday afternoon whereas operating to cowl first base continues to be not but recognized, and with out that data, a timeline for a return can’t be predicted.
Proper-handed reliever Max Kranick was known as up from Triple-A Syracuse to take his place on the roster.
“We’re just waiting on that,” Stearns mentioned Friday at Citi Area. “I imagine with all these things, we try to run through various physicians to try to get as many opinions as possible.”
Senga, within the third 12 months of his five-year, $75 million contract, missed almost the whole thing of the 2024 season with a shoulder damage and a calf damage. He strained his left calf in the course of his solely common season begin, resulting in one more prolonged rehab and pitch-count limits as soon as he was made accessible within the postseason.
At occasions, it appeared as if the Mets have been at nighttime about Senga’s rehab development final season. At one level, he shut himself down from a rehab project, regardless of being seemingly wholesome with Senga citing the necessity to work on his mechanics. Getting his mechanics in the proper place is vital to stopping future damage, or a re-injury of a shoulder or elbow, however it grew to become clear that some within the group have been left at nighttime when it got here to their star pitcher.
“A lot of players, but particularly Senga, want to be involved in the process,” Stearns mentioned. “I think it’s important that we get on the same page as him from the jump, and that we’re all bought into what this process is going to look like. I think we got there last year.”
They bought there final season late within the course of. Nonetheless, higher late than by no means. The Mets have discovered from it, and don’t suppose will probably be the identical this time round.
“I certainly know Senga a lot better now than I did last year, our medical staff has now worked through a rehab progression and a rehab process with him already on multiple occasions,” Stearns mentioned. “So I think we feel pretty comfortable that whatever this turns out to be, we’re going to be able to work very productively with him to get him back healthy.”
It was powerful on the 32-year-old Japanese starter to be away from the staff final 12 months, and his purpose this 12 months was to make each begin. Since he walked off the sphere with out a lot of a noticeable limp Thursday, there’s some hope that the pressure is gentle.
However for at the very least the subsequent two weeks, they’ll be with out Senga and his vaunted ghost fork. The membership is optimistic that they’ll soak up his begins within the short-term with the pitching depth they have already got. Blackburn, a right-hander acquired on the commerce deadline final season, tossed 5 shutout innings towards the Los Angeles Dodgers on the highway in his solely begins this season, then was moved to the bullpen with none room for him within the rotation.
A veteran who shouldn’t be solely prepared to be versatile, but additionally an arm who has the power to begin or come out of the bullpen efficiently, is a invaluable piece to have.
“It definitely helps,” mentioned supervisor Carlos Mendoza. “It’s important to have guys like that. We’ve been talking about our depth, and here we are again getting tested.”
Frankie Montas and Sean Manaea are additionally near returning, with Montas making what is predicted to be his second-to-last rehab begin Friday evening with Triple-A Syracuse. The 2 can soak up Senga’s innings if he’s out long-term. With Senga, the Mets have been going to have two extra starters than vital, now it’s just one, and so they can possibility Tylor Megill to Triple-A Syracuse to make room for one of many returning arms.
The Mets have persistently had the bottom ERA in baseball. Sure, Senga, whose 1.47 ERA is the bottom amongst all NL starters, has been an enormous a part of that. Nonetheless, with the way in which the remainder of the group has carried out up to now and based mostly on their anticipated projections, Stearns doesn’t foresee the Mets operating out of high quality arms.
“It’s a good thing to have more major league quality starting pitchers than less,” Stearns mentioned. “Frankly, I’m by no means actually involved about having an excessive amount of [pitching] as a result of as we noticed final evening — and as I’ve skilled all through my profession — it’s very, very uncommon the place you truly get to the purpose the place you may have too many beginning pitchers that you could roster. And if by some means, in some unspecified time in the future, we get that this season, I’ll should make some choices, and I think about these will probably be troublesome choices…
“For now, I am very happy with how the group that we’ve had to this point has pitched.”
