The Mets placed right-hander Jose Butto on the 15-day injured list on Friday, with a retroactive placement date of July 1. Right-hander Chris Devenski was called up from Triple-A to take Butto’s spot on the active roster. Butto is dealing with an undisclosed illness, and manager Carlos Mendoza told reporters (including the New York Post’s Mike Puma) that the club expects to activate the righty for the first game back after the All-Star break.
Now in his fourth season in New York, Butto has been used as a full-time reliever for the first time in his MLB career and the bottom-line results have been solid. He has a 2.47 ERA over 43 2/3 innings and 31 appearances, albeit with a troublesome 11.2% walk rate and a 21.8% strikeout rate that is also below the league average. Butto’s 4.01 SIERA reflects the sizeable gap between his actual performance and expected performance, though he does have a strong 49.6% grounder rate, and very good chase and whiff rates despite his relative lack of strikeouts.
While Butto’s illness doesn’t appear to be too serious, his absence creates yet another hole in the Mets’ injury-riddled pitching staff. The Amazins now have 13 different pitchers on their IL, ranging from relatively minor situations like Butto to multiple hurlers who have been out for extended periods of time, or won’t pitch again in 2025.
One of the biggest names on the IL might be nearing a return, as Kodai Senga is slated to pitch for Double-A Binghampton in a rehab outing today. Senga hasn’t pitched since June 12, when a right hamstring strain cut short a start against the Nationals. Since it was just a Grade 1 strain, however, the Mets were optimistic that Senga wouldn’t miss too much time, and it is possible Senga might need just the one rehab outing before rejoining the big league rotation.
After injuries sidelined Senga for almost all of the 2024 season, he has returned in good form this year, posting a 1.47 ERA over 13 starts and 73 2/3 innings. A 4.14 SIERA reveals that Senga isn’t nearly as dominant as his ERA suggests, though his Statcast numbers are generally above average apart a 10.6% walk rate is only in the 17th percentile of all pitchers. Nonetheless, Senga’s relatively quick return is a huge boost to a Mets rotation that has been short-handed by injuries all season, let alone this second wave of health woes that have hit the staff in the last couple of weeks.
Tylor Megill was one of those most recent absences, as the right-hander hit the 15-day IL in mid-June due to an elbow sprain. Despite the ominous nature of such injuries, Megill said at the time of the IL placement that he was only dealing with inflammation, and MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo wrote yesterday that a recent MRI showed that the inflammation had decreased to the point that Megill can resume throwing.
Since Megill has been shut down for three weeks, he’ll begin with some light work throwing off flat ground today, but the hope is that he won’t take too long to fully ramp up to starting readiness. Megill has a 3.95 ERA/3.61 SIERA in 68 1/3 innings and 14 starts for New York this season, with an outstanding 29.2% strikeout rate that helps cover for a subpar 10.8% walk rate.
Why not just start Senga against the Yankees today? Does it matter if he gets his 75 pitches in Binghamton or New York. He still a better option then what they have. He hasn’t been out that long.
Because you don’t want a guy’s first game back pitching to be a high stress affair. You want to ease him back in and make sure he’s good to go. Also, it’s been 3 weeks. There will almost certainly be a little rust. It’s better to knock that off in the minors where it doesn’t matter.
You’re right it does matter. His minor rust is better than the options they have currently. Every game matters for them now because of their horrendous June. They can’t be throwing away games anymore. It’s not like pitchers go into their minor league starts saying I’m going to throw less hard and not hit their spots. It takes the same toll on their arm as a major league start. The only thing they are worried about is his pitch count.
The point of the rehab is to verify that he is, in fact, OK before bringing him into meaningful games.
“It’s not like pitchers go into their minor league starts saying I’m going to throw less hard and not hit their spots. It takes the same toll on their arm as a major league start.
That s not entirely true. The game plan for the rehab start may be different than it would be for a big league game. Depending on the pitcher and injury, they may not have him use his entire arsenal of pitches. And yes, he may be instructed not to go all out in certain situations that he otherwise might.
“Every game matters for them now because of their horrendous June.” Overstatement. They’re only a half game back in the division. In their last two starts, Holmes and Peterson did not look to be as cooked as it had previously seemed. Brazo and Garret are no longer hemorrhaging. Time to ease away from the panic button.
Lastly, today is Montas’ schedule start. He is supposed to be part of this rotation, so let him pitch. we also need to find out if he was really just tipping his pitches as he says, or if there’s a bigger problem at play with his last (terrible) outing.
Suggesting they use Senga tomorrow in place of a filler (Waddell) might sow a litle more common sense.
@METS – Actually, in a minor league rehab start they won’t have the exact same wear and tear, as they are going to be less ramped up to max effort, and are focused on a more controlled and smoother delivery to work on pitches and command.
There is nothing wrong with giving Montas an extra day and pitch tomorrow especially coming off a longer injury. It’s not so much as the Phillies the Mets have to worry about. It’s making the playoffs in general. Another two weeks of horrendous play and they are out of the playoffs entirely.
Two weeks in July won’t make the difference in making or missing the playoffs for any team unless “horrendous play” is something like 2-12.
Dude, it’s July 5, not September 5. Relax.
That’s almost exactly what they just did.
Why do games in September count more then the ones in July?
They don’t count more, but there’s more time to make up for a bad July stretch than one in September.
What are the odds the Mets, or any other team (besides the Rockies and White Sox) will go 4-24 at any time?
You don’t have a leg to stand on, sir. Read what Canuckleball wrote again.
If you avoid the bad stretch in July then September doesn’t matter that much. Why recover from anything and not give away games you don’t have to?
With their current pitching better then we would hope.
I agree, not to long ago 1 game cost us the division.
Not an arm injury, hamstring put him out there toda
Where is Manaea?
He now has loose bodies in his elbow. The plan is for him to pitch through it and have them removed after the season. But he pitched a couple of days ago and got shelled in what was his first rehab start since learning of this new ailment. So things may be up in the air right now.
This was before or after the cortisone shot?
The cortisone shot was in response to the loose body. The rehab start was after the shot.
LMGTFY
Mets need their pitching reinforcements back asap.
This just in, Montas outpitched Rodent.