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NEW YORK — Mets starter Kodai Senga has suffered another setback in his progression.
Manager Carlos Mendoza revealed that Senga continues to deal with discomfort in his tricep. As a result, he skipped his scheduled bullpen session on Friday and received an MRI.
nerve, so he’s getting a cortisone shot,” Mendoza told reporters at Citi Field. “He’s going to be shut down 3-5 days and hopefully get him throwing again.”
Mendoza didn’t seem too concerned with the results of the MRI. Instead, he came away feeling better because after looking closer at Senga’s arm, all that showed up was the inflammation.
This is “good news,” Mendoza reiterated.
The bad news is that Senga will not be activated off the IL when he is eligible on May 27. Instead, he’ll work through his progression again, playing catch, bullpens, lives, and a rehab assignment, which can take at least a month.
Senga has already missed three months of the season — nine or 10 starts — and counting. This could end up hurting his earning potential.
His contract (five years, $75 million) includes a player opt-out after the 2025 season if he’s logged 400 innings between 2023-2025. He pitched 166-1/3 innings last season, leaving him with 233-2/3 for this year and next.
In essence, the more time he misses, the more it looks like he’ll remain with the Mets beyond next season, not seeking an extension or a bigger contract elsewhere.
Previously, Senga pumped the brakes on throwing lives earlier this month after feeling something off during his first live batting practice against High-A Brooklyn batters in April. After his second live, he confirmed that something “felt different mechanically.”
That setback, if we can call it that, seemed to baffle Mets manager Carlos Mendoza, who admitted he’s also learning just how “meticulous” Senga is about his process.
“Everybody is different,” Mendoza said at the time.
Tylor Megill is a good example of a player who also suffered a shoulder strain after his first start this season, landing on the injured list on April 1. But Megill has made huge strides already, returning to the Mets rotation on May 20, where he pitched five innings, allowing three runs (two earned) with seven strikeouts.
After this latest development, Senga’s return is anybody’s guess.
Senga emerged as the ace of the staff last season. That’s when in 29 starts, he posted a 12-7 record with a 2.98 ERA and 202 strikeouts over 166-1/3 innings (10.9 SO/9). This earned him an All-Star nod and NL Cy Young votes — he placed seventh in the award.
The Mets returned home to New York after a dismal eight-game road trip only to receive bad news about right-hander Kodai Senga. The triceps soreness he experienced earlier in the week lingered and he underwent imaging that showed inflammation. Senga received a cortisone shot Friday and will be shut down from throwing for the next 3-5 days.
The team’s ace was set to throw a bullpen this week but was unable to do so. After he’s cleared to throw again, he’ll have to progress to throwing bullpens again by playing catch and widening the distance gradually.
Senga is eligible to return from the 60-day injured list Monday and the Mets had hoped to activate him in early June, but with all of the setbacks he has faced, his 2024 debut may not come until the second half of the season.
Manager Carlos Mendoza stopped short of saying he was frustrated or concerned.
“The good news is that it’s just inflammation, like we said,” the manager said Friday at Citi Field before the Mets hosted the San Francisco Giants. “He’s getting this shot and hopefully he can get going from there. So yeah, it’s one of those [things] where we knew from the beginning it was going to take time and here we are dealing with it.”
The initial timeline for Senga was 6-8 weeks, so while the Mets knew it would take time for him to recover from a spring training injury and build himself up to his regular-season form, they didn’t know it was going to take this much time.
