Kodai Senga took a significant step in his rehab from a left calf strain. As reflected on the MLB.com injury tracker, the righty threw a 25-pitch bullpen session at fairly high intensity this afternoon.
While that’s the first of multiple throwing sessions, Andy Martino of SNY reports that the Mets are increasingly optimistic that Senga will return this season. Martino writes that the Mets prefer for Senga to come back as a starting pitcher. Those would surely be abbreviated starts given the limited ramp-up time, but the organization evidently prefers that to having the 31-year-old work from the bullpen.
Any kind of contribution from Senga would be a welcome development. He sustained the calf injury just before the trade deadline. Initial indications were that the strain was likely to end his season. The Mets implied as much by almost immediately placing him on the 60-day injured list, officially ruling him out until September 25. That left all of five regular season games in which Senga could participate.
There wasn’t any guarantee at the time that those games would even matter for the Mets, who were part of a jumbled Wild Card field. New York has remained in the mix and could be fighting for their playoff lives into the season’s final weekend. The Mets secured their seventh straight win with an 8-3 victory over the Red Sox tonight. They’re a half-game back of the Braves for the NL’s final Wild Card spot. The Mets are the only team within four games of Atlanta.
The two teams are squaring up for a potential race to the finish line. The Mets’ opponent when Senga is first eligible to return: the Braves. That’d be the second game of a three-game set between the division rivals. New York then closes the regular season with a three-game series in Milwaukee.
New York has hung in the playoff race despite virtually nothing from Senga. Their presumptive staff ace has made one start. Senga suffered a shoulder strain early in Spring Training, delaying his season debut until July 26. He had worked 5 1/3 innings of one-run ball with nine strikeouts (coincidentally, against Atlanta) before suffering the calf injury as he tried to get out of the way on an infield fly ball.
Senga was an All-Star and finished seventh in NL Cy Young balloting last year. He worked to a 2.98 earned run average in 166 1/3 innings during his first big league campaign. Senga finished second behind runaway winner Corbin Carroll in Rookie of the Year balloting.
The Mets are relying on a rotation of Sean Manaea, Luis Severino, David Peterson, Jose Quintana and Tylor Megill. The Mets will welcome deadline pickup Paul Blackburn — whom they may not have acquired if not for Senga’s calf injury — back from the 15-day IL next week (relayed on X by Anthony DiComo of MLB.com). Martino writes that the Mets are debating whether to move Megill to relief once Blackburn returns. Megill has a 4.95 ERA in 12 appearances, including 11 starts, despite striking out 26% of opponents. The righty has a bit of bullpen experience, having made six relief appearances back in 2022.