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Kodai Senga

Mets Transfer Kodai Senga To 60-Day Injured List

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The Mets announced that right-hander Kodai Senga has been transferred to the 60-day injured list. That’s the corresponding move to open a roster spot for left-hander Tyler Jay, who was reported earlier to be joining the club.

Senga, 31, was diagnosed with a moderate posterior capsule strain in his throwing shoulder during Spring Training and started the season on the 15-day IL. He’ll now be ineligible to return until 60 days from that initial IL placement, which will be late May. Manger Carlos Mendoza said yesterday that Senga still has not thrown off a mound, per Will Sammon of The Athletic.

The news of Senga’s injury came in late February and the club initially planned for a shutdown period of at least three weeks, though they later planned on adding another seven to ten days to be cautious. It was reported almost three weeks ago that Senga was to begin a throwing program but the fact that he has not made it to a mound yet suggests that he either had some sort of setback or is being ramped up very slowly. Whatever the reason, the Mets apparently don’t expect Senga to be able to rejoin the club in the next six weeks.

It’s obviously a frustrating development for Senga and the team. The righty came over from Japan last year and was an immediate success, pitching 166 1/3 innings with a 2.98 earned run average. His 11.1% walk rate was a tad high but he struck out 29.1% of batters faced while keeping 44.7% of balls in play on the ground. He finished seventh in National Cy Young voting and second in Rookie of the Year voting.

Rotation health has been an issue for the Mets so far this year. David Peterson required hip surgery in the offseason and began the year on the IL, while Senga and Max Kranick followed him due to spring injuries, the latter suffering a hamstring strain. Tylor Megill took a rotation spot to start the year but landed on the IL himself after just one outing due to a shoulder strain.

The current rotation consists of Sean Manaea, Jose Quintana, Luis Severino and Adrian Houser, with José Buttó likely to be recalled soon to join that group. Until the injured hurlers get back, Joey Lucchesi is likely the top depth option, as he’s on the 40-man roster and currently on optional assignment.

Kodai Senga Expected To Begin Throwing Program

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Mets ace Kodai Senga has been shut down for nearly a month after being diagnosed with a capsule strain in his right shoulder, but after a recent MRI he’s been cleared to return to baseball activity. Senga won’t start throwing immediately but could do so within the next week, manager Carlos Mendoza announced to reporters this morning (link via SNY’s Danny Abriano).

At the time of his injury, Senga was shut down for a minimum of three weeks. That was extended another week to ten days, but the latest MRI is far more encouraging, it seems. Once he’s cleared some strength tests, he’ll begin a throwing progression.

Senga’s initial diagnosis launched a fifth-starter competition in camp that was eventually won by right-hander Tylor Megill. He’ll slot into the five spot behind Opening Day starter Jose Quintana and the trio of Sean Manaea, Adrian Houser and Luis Severino. Given that Senga will be picking up a ball for the first time in around a month, he’ll effectively need a full spring training to build up to game readiness. That means the Quintana-Manaea-Houser-Severino-Megill quintet could be in place for the first month or so of the season (pending other injuries on the starting staff, of course).

The 31-year-old Senga was a Rookie of the Year finalist in 2023, exceeding preseason expectations by rattling off 166 1/3 innings of 2.98 ERA ball with a 29.1% strikeout rate. Senga’s 11.1% walk rate could use some improvement, but he took little time cementing him as a quality big league starter. He’s in the second season of a five-year, $75MM pact spanning the 2023-27 seasons.

NL Pitching Notes: Senga, Ferrer, Rockies

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Kodai Senga has yet to pitch in a game this spring. The 2023 All-Star and Rookie of the Year runner-up is nursing a right shoulder strain. Although Andy Martino of SNY reported on Wednesday that “the word” on Senga’s health remained “very positive,” an update on Friday afternoon from Tim Healey of Newsday Sports is a little less optimistic. Initially, Senga was to be shut down for three weeks. Those three weeks have now passed, but according to president of baseball operations David Stearns, the 31-year-old “won’t throw for another 7-10 days.”

This setback likely removes any hope that Senga would return to the Mets rotation before the end of April, but an early May return is still on the table. Presuming he needs about six weeks to stretch out his arm, the righty could be back on the mound by the first week of May if he starts throwing again next weekend.

Needless to say, the Mets are hoping their ace misses as little time as possible. Senga made 29 starts last season, finishing second among qualified NL starters with a 2.98 ERA. Jose Quintana, who made just 13 starts in 2023, gets the Opening Day nod in his place, while Luis Severino, Sean Manaea, Adrian Houser, and Tylor Megill are likely to round out the rotation.

More pitching updates from the National League…

  • The Nationals have shut down Jose A. Ferrer as the southpaw nurses a teres major strain (per Mark Zuckerman of MASN Sports). He will not pitch for at least three weeks. Ferrer, 24, made his MLB debut last season, appearing in 39 games out of the bullpen for Washington. Although his 5.03 ERA and 17.6% strikeout rate were unimpressive, he induced plenty of weak contact on the ground. Only a handful of NL relievers had a higher groundball rate or a lower barrel rate, per Baseball Savant. Ferrer was a strong candidate to make the Nationals’ Opening Day roster, and his injury leaves Robert Garcia as the only healthy left-handed reliever on the 40-man roster.
  • According to Patrick Saunders of The Denver Post, right-handed pitchers Dakota Hudson and Peter Lambert are the two favorites for the fifth and final spot in the Rockies starting rotation. Hudson, who spent the first six years of his career with the Cardinals, has more major league experience and a recent track record of moderate success. He has made 38 starts over the past two years with a 4.78 ERA. Lambert, who made his debut with Colorado in 2019, has started just 32 games in his career, pitching to a dismal 6.38 ERA. Even accounting for the different run environments at Busch Stadium and Coors Field, that’s a stark difference. That said, Hudson is more of a proven quantity at this point in his career, while Lambert could still have some of the upside that made him a fringe top-100 prospect before his rookie season. Hudson seems like the leading contender, but there’s a reason Lambert remains in the conversation.

Kodai Senga Diagnosed With Posterior Capsule Strain In Right Shoulder, Will Open Season On IL

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TODAY: Senga received a PRP injection in his right shoulder and won’t throw for at least three weeks, the Mets told Anthony DiComo and other reporters.  This creates a rough timeline of late April/early May for Senga’s return if he returns from his shutdown period and is then able to ramp up as per usual, though things are still very fluid for a recovery plan.  “We’ve got to be careful, but we’ll be flexible, as well,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said.  “Senga knows his body well.  He knows he’s going to be pretty honest, and this is the conversation I’m having with him — making sure he voices his opinion, so we will have to adjust as we get going with his throwing program.”

FEBRUARY 22: The Mets were dealt some difficult injury news on Thursday morning. New York president of baseball operations David Stearns announced that staff ace Kodai Senga was diagnosed with a moderate posterior capsule strain in his throwing shoulder (relayed by Anthony DiComo of MLB.com). Senga is being shut down until his symptoms subside. He’s out indefinitely and will open the year on the injured list.

Senga sat out the team’s workout yesterday after reporting arm fatigue. The Mets sent him for testing yesterday. That evidently revealed the shoulder strain. It subtracts the team’s best starter from the Opening Day rotation mix, although Stearns downplayed the urgency to go outside the organization for additional help (video link via the New York Post).

Senga, 31, signed a five-year, $75MM deal with the Mets last offseason after an 11-year run in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. The former Softbank Hawks ace outperformed even some of the more optimistic expectations for his MLB debut, pitching 166 1/3 innings of 2.98 ERA ball with a 29.1% strikeout rate and 11.1% walk rate. Senga made the NL All-Star team, finished second in NL Rookie of the Year voting and even landed seventh on the NL Cy Young ballot.

Following last summer’s trades of Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander, Senga stood as the presumptive favorite to take the ball for the Mets on Opening Day. He’d have been followed, in some order, by Jose Quintana and offseason acquisitions Adrian Houser, Sean Manaea and Luis Severino. Instead, with Senga sidelined, one of those four (Quintana, most likely) will take the ball on Opening Day, while a battle for the fifth spot among in-house options like Tylor Megill, Joey Lucchesi and Jose Butto plays out during spring training. Many Mets fans will surely hope that the Senga injuries spurs further activity on either the trade or free agent front, but that seems quite unlikely.

“I don’t thinks so,” Stearns replied when asked whether Senga’s injury increases the likelihood of adding someone from outside the organization. “We’re always going to be opportunistic and hear what’s out there, but I don’t think it really changes our thought process.”

The free agent market still features several notable names; each of Blake Snell, Jordan Montgomery, Michael Lorenzen and Mike Clevinger remains unsigned. Presumably, the agents for all of those arms will be reaching out to the Mets in the wake of an ominous injury to their top starter.

However, the team’s mindset throughout the offseason has been to avoid long-term investments ahead of what looks like a largely transitional season. (Yoshinobu Yamamoto was the lone exception to that thinking, due to the 25-year-old’s atypical youth relative to other free agents.) That aversion to long-term deals will surely rule out a run at Snell or Montgomery, barring a change of heart from owner Steve Cohen, and the Mets’ luxury-tax status might make them reluctant to spend further on back-of-the-rotation arms like Lorenzen and Clevinger. Any spending for the Mets at this point comes with a 110% tax, so they’d effectively be paying double for any rotation additions.

Blake Snell Wins National League Cy Young Award

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Free agent left-hander Blake Snell has been named the National League Cy Young Award winner for 2023, per an announcement from the Baseball Writers Association of America. Logan Webb of the Giants finished second in the voting while Zac Gallen of the Diamondbacks finished third.

Snell, 31 next month, has now earned a Cy Young award for the second time in his career. The first trophy was in the American League, with Snell winning as a member of the Rays in 2018. He is just the seventh pitcher to win the award in both leagues, joining Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martínez, Max Scherzer, Gaylord Perry and Roy Halladay.

The left-handed Snell hasn’t been the most consistent pitcher in his career, with both his health and performance wobbling over the years, but his two award-winning campaigns have been excellent. His first trophy came after posting an earned run average of 1.89 with the Rays and this second piece of hardware was earned by posting a 2.25 for the Padres this year. His most recent campaign saw him walk 13.3% of batters faced but he danced around those by striking out 31.5% of his opponents and keeping the ball on the ground at a 44.4% clip. He probably had some help from the baseball gods as his .256 batting average on balls in play and 86.7% strand rate were both on the lucky side of average, but his punchouts and grounders surely helped him somewhat as well.

Outside of those two campaigns, the results have been far more mixed. He got to 180 innings pitched in his award-winning campaigns but hasn’t reached 130 in any other season. He also hasn’t posted an ERA lower than 3.24 in any of them.

Of course, that doesn’t matter for the Cy Young voting. It’s a single-season award and his year-to-year consistency is not something for the voters to consider. Snell’s voting wasn’t quite unanimous but he got 28 of the 30 first-place votes. But his overall track record will be of concern to the clubs considering signing him as a free agent. Pitchers with multiple Cy Youngs don’t hit free agency every day but it’s also incredibly rare for a pitcher to put so many runners on base without allowing them to score. Regardless of those concerns, MLBTR predicted Snell to land a contract of $200MM over seven years and he’s already garnering plenty of interest.

Webb had a 3.25 ERA in 216 innings for the Giants this year, which got him one of the first-place votes and 17 for second. Gallen had a 3.47 ERA in his 210 innings, which led to one first-place vote and three for second. In the full voting, which can be seen here, votes also went to Spencer Strider, Justin Steele, Zack Wheeler, Kodai Senga and Corbin Burnes.

Corbin Carroll Wins National League Rookie Of The Year Award

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Diamondbacks outfielder Corbin Carroll has won the National League Rookie of the Year award, the Baseball Writers Association of America announced. Mets right-hander Kodai Senga came in second while Dodgers outfielder James Outman placed third.

Carroll was selected to Arizona’s roster in late August of last year, allowing him to get a taste of the majors but without exhausting his rookie status. He fared extremely well in that audition, hitting .260/.330/.500 in his first 115 plate appearances for a wRC+ of 131, indicating he was 31% better than the league average hitter in that time. The D’Backs felt confident enough in Carroll based on that showing, and his work as a minor leaguer, to give him an eight-year extension with a guarantee of $111MM.

They were hoping he would be an integral part of the club and help them make the postseason for the first time since 2017. He went on to have an incredible showing in his first full season in the majors, hitting 25 home runs and stealing 54 bases. His .285/.362/.506 line led to a 131 wRC+ and he also got strong grades for his outfield defense. He produced 6.0 wins above replacement in the eyes of FanGraphs while Baseball Reference had him at 5.4. The club did indeed break their postseason drought, snagging a Wild Card spot and eventually going all the way to the World Series.

While the award is surely thrilling for Carroll and the Snakes on its own, there are other implications of Carroll taking the trophy. The new collective bargaining agreement contains measures designed to combat service time manipulation through the prospect promotion incentive, or PPI. Top-two Rookie of the Year finishers who were Top 100 prospects on at least two preseason lists at Baseball America, ESPN and MLB Pipeline are automatically credited with a full service year. That won’t apply to Carroll, who was up all year and earned a full service year regardless, though he was the #2 prospect on all three of those lists. Gunnar Henderson, who got the AL trophy today, was #1.

But players with PPI status can also earn extra draft picks for their clubs if they have less than 60 days of service time to start the season and earn a full service year the traditional way, as Carroll did, while also appearing on those preseason prospect lists. Players in that camp who finish in the top two in Rookie of the Year voting or top three in Cy Young or Most Valuable Player voting during their pre-arbitration seasons earn a bonus pick after the first round for their club. That means the Diamondbacks, who are already loaded with young talent, will get a valuable extra pick in next year’s draft.

Senga also had a strong season, his first after coming over from Japan. He made 29 starts for the Mets with a 2.98 earned run average, 29.1% strikeout rate, 11.1% walk rate and 44.7% ground ball rate. Players considered by MLB to be foreign professionals, as Senga is, aren’t eligible to earn PPI picks for their clubs. Outman also had a solid campaign, hitting 23 home runs and stealing 16 bases. He struck out in 31.9% of his plate appearances but offset that somewhat by walking at a 12% clip. His .248/.353/.437 batting line led to a wRC+ of 118 and he also graded out well in the field. He wasn’t considered a top 100 prospect coming into the year and wouldn’t have qualified for a PPI pick even if he surpassed Senga for second place.

The voting was unanimous, per the vote tally at BBWAA, with Carroll getting all 30 first-place votes. Senga got 22 second-place votes and Outman got five. Other players getting votes were Nolan Jones of the Rockies, Eury Pérez of the Marlins, Patrick Bailey of the Giants and three Reds: Matt McLain, Spencer Steer and Elly De La Cruz.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Quick Hits: Moore, Astros, Senga, Royals

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The Astros had some interest in Matt Moore when the southpaw was a free agent last winter, and it looks like that interest extended into Moore’s recent visits to the waiver wire.  According to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, the Astros put claims on Moore when he was put on waivers by both the Angels and Guardians, only to be beaten to the punch both times by Cleveland and then Miami, Moore’s current team.  A claiming team was only responsible for the relatively small amount of salary remaining from the one-year, $7.55MM deal Moore signed with the Halos last winter, so it’s safe to assume that most contending teams put in claims on the lefty’s services, so the Astros were maybe a longshot to have Moore fall to them in the waiver order.  Houston had has one of the better records in baseball for most of the season, thus putting them behind all the clubs with lesser records (like the Guardians and Marlins) in terms of claims.

It stands to reason that Houston might also look into finally landing Moore when he returns to the free agent market this offseason.  In the near-term, however, it is fair to wonder if adding Moore might have helped the Astros avoid their suddenly late-season slump.  Houston has lost nine of its last 12 games, dropping the club from first place in the AL West to fighting just to make the playoffs altogether.

Some more items from around baseball as head into the last week of the regular season…

  • Kodai Senga has been a major bright spot within a disappointing Mets season, as the right-hander has delivered a 2.96 ERA over 161 1/3 innings in his first year of Major League action.  Now that Senga is better adapted to North American baseball, the question is whether or not he might be deployed somewhat differently in 2024, as this season saw the Mets often give Senga extra rest between starts as a way of easing him in from Japanese baseball’s routine of starting pitchers once per week.  “It’s a very fluid situation.  It’s not just, ‘We want you to go on four days’ rest or not.’ There is a lot of thought that goes into that decision on the team’s end too,” Senga told the New York Post’s Mike Puma, via interpreter.  “So I think they will prioritize my health as they did this year. We’ll do my measurements between starts as we did this year, and if everything looks good sometimes it will happen, sometimes it won’t.”  Mets pitching coach Jeremy Hefner also noted that Senga’s usage could also be determined by what other pitchers join the rotation next year, as New York is thin in proven starting pitching depth.
  • The Royals announced some front office changes earlier this week, with some in-house promotions and an intriguing new hire of Brian Bridges as the club’s new scouting director.  Bridges has worked as a national crosschecker with the Giants for the last few seasons, and previously worked with the Braves from 2006-18 as first a scout, and then the scouting director for the last four years of his Atlanta tenure.  Speaking with MLB.com’s Anne Rogers, Royals GM J.J. Picollo said Bridges “is widely regarded as one of the best evaluators in the game.  His handprints are kind of all over the Braves right now, with players that are still there and players they moved to acquire other pieces to help them win.”  Homegrown talent has been a key plank of the Braves’ success in recent years, whereas the Royals are seemingly taking a new approach to their development process, as their post-2016 rebuild has yet to deliver much in the way of quality at the MLB level.

Japanese-Born MLB Player Round Up

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Many star players from NPB have made their way to MLB to take on a new challenge.

Some of them became household names like Ichiro and Hideki Matsui. Some were consistent and solid players for a long period like Hiroki Kuroda and Koji Uehara. Some failed to meet the hype and lofty expectations like Kei Igawa and Kazuo Matsui. Some became fan favorites like Munenori Kawasaki.

The 2021 AL MVP and two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani headlines the current batch of Japanese big-league players, and rightfully so. These players are a fascinating group that features exciting rookies, experienced veterans, and players looking to make their mark in MLB. Their performances go a long way in promoting the globalization of the sport but also provide fans, scouts, and front offices a better baseline for evaluating future talent from NPB.

How are their respective seasons going? Let’s break it down.

(All stats as of 6/11/2023)

Shohei Ohtani

Big surprise, Ohtani is once again among the frontrunners in the AL MVP race with his one-of-a-kind value as a two-way player. At the plate, he is hitting .291/.362/.593 with 50 RBI and an AL-leading 20 homers.

He had a hot start on the mound to start the season, with a 0.64 ERA and a .093 opponent batting average in his first five starts. Since his last start in April against the A’s, Ohtani has really struggled with the long ball. All 11 homers allowed on the season have come since that start.

On the season, Ohtani has a 3.32 ERA in 13 starts, with a 33.3 K% in 76 innings pitched. He has been plagued by shaky control in some starts, and his walk rate is up to 11.1% compared to 6.7% last season.

You can find Ohtani updates, including reports of every start, endorsement deals, and hot stove news on his player page on MLBTR, or shoheiohtanirumors.com.

Kodai Senga

The Mets signed the 30-year-old right-hander to a five-year, $75MM deal last December. Senga was immediately thrown into the fire in the early weeks of the season as the anchor of a depleted Mets rotation that was impacted by injuries to Justin Verlander and Carlos Carrasco and Max Scherzer’s suspension.

So far, Senga has answered the call and shown the talent that made him one of the most coveted starting pitchers in the 2022 offseason. Senga has a 3.34 ERA in 12 starts and 64 ⅔ innings pitched this season. He had a 4.15 ERA in his first five starts, but he has maintained a 2.79 ERA in his last seven. He is striking out hitters at a strong 28.3% rate, but walking hitters at a 14.3% clip.

Senga’s notorious ‘Ghost Fork’ splitter, which made him a household name in Japan, is no fluke. Hitters are only hitting .108 against the forkball and whiffing at a whopping 59.8% rate, one of the highest in MLB.

The next step in Senga’s transition to MLB is building consistency in control that will allow him to be more efficient and pitch deeper into games. In his final season in NPB, Senga walked 8.6% of hitters, so it’s certainly possible.

Masataka Yoshida

The 29-year-old outfielder signed a five-year, $90MM deal with the Red Sox after seven highly productive seasons in Japan for the Orix Buffaloes. The hefty price tag surprised many, given the questions of his slight frame at 5’8″ and power numbers in NPB traditionally not translating well to the big leagues. The ‘Macho Man’ has rewarded the organization’s faith with his patient and disciplined approach, bat-to-ball skills, and sharp swing. Yoshida is now one of the frontrunners in the AL Rookie of the Year race with his borderline All-Star-level production at the plate.

Yoshida is hitting .300/.375/.467 with seven homers, 33 RBI, and a 132 wRC+. After overcoming a nightmarish start (.189/.317/.264 in first 53 at-bats) to his MLB career, he’s been one of the most consistent bats for the Red Sox. Yoshida joined Ichiro as one of only two players this century to have reached base 85+ times and struck out 25 or fewer times in their first 50 career games.

He turned a corner after working with both Red Sox and Orix Buffaloes coaches and making appropriate adjustments, including lowering his hands. He continues to be proactive with his adjustments. After a rare three-strikeout performance against the Diamondbacks, the Sox coaching staff tweaked his approach and Yoshida responded with a .480/.581/.760 line in the next seven games.

Defensively, there is room for improvement for the outfielder. The Statcast metrics are not favorable, as he ranks in the tenth percentile and 12th percentile in outs above average and outfielder jump, respectively. He should be able to make marginal improvements in that area as he continues to familiarize himself with the Green Monster and the unique outfield at Fenway Park. Could he be making his way to Seattle for the All-Star game in July? We shall see. 

Seiya Suzuki

The 28-year-old outfielder is in the second year of his five-year, $85MM deal with the Cubs.  He was limited to 110 games in his first season by injury, hitting .262/.336/.433 along with 14 homers and 46 RBI. 

After a slow start in April where he hit .254/.333/.373 and just one home run, Suzuki had an excellent month in May, hitting .319/.417/.560 and five homers. On the season, Suzuki is hitting .278/.367/.450 with six homers, 19 RBI, and 124 wRC+ in 50 games. 

So far in his big league career, Suzuki has shown fans glimpses of the five-tool skill set that made him an appealing player in the 2021 offseason but has yet to have his breakout moment.

He has shown excellent plate discipline, walking at a 12.1% rate, and ranks in the 92nd percentile on Statcast chase rate. Despite his plate discipline, Suzuki strikes out quite often, with a 26.1 K%. Suzuki seems to struggle against pitches with movement, hitting just .216 against sinkers and .176 against cutters. Four-seamers with “clean” spin are traditionally more valued over moving pitches in Japan, so it is common for Japanese hitters to struggle with movement since they lack reps. 

Suzuki has been as advertised on the defensive end, recording two outs above average, thanks to a 98th-percentile outfielder jump and 92nd-percentile arm strength. 

Yu Darvish

The right-hander signed a five-year, $90MM contract extension in February, keeping him on the team through 2028. Darvish had a self-proclaimed best season of his career in 2022, tossing 194 2/3 innings with a 3.10 ERA, 25.6 K%, and 4.8 BB%.

He hasn’t been at his absolute best in 2023, with a 4.30 ERA, 26.3 K%, 7.5 BB% in 69 innings, but is still putting up above-average peripheral numbers on Statcast and still featuring a unique eight-pitch mix. If you remove his May 28th start against the Yankees where he got knocked around for seven runs in 2 ⅔ innings, his ERA would be 3.53. 

He reached the 100 wins mark in his last start against the Rockies on June 9, joining Hideo Nomo as the only Japanese MLB pitchers to reach that mark.

Yusei Kikuchi

In his second season as a Blue Jay, Kikuchi is still navigating his way to be a consistently productive starter. The left-hander had his worst season in the majors since his rookie season, largely due to poor control and a questionable pitch mix. 

Coming into 2023, Kikuchi made subtle changes in his delivery and mechanics, while sporting a new beard and swagger. He was off to a solid start, with a 3.00 ERA in April, but had a tough May where he gave up nine home runs and had a 5.83 ERA. On the season, Kikuchi has a 4.34 ERA, 22.7 K%, and 7.4 BB% in 66 ⅓ innings, while giving up an MLB-worst 18 home runs. 

The left-hander is throwing harder than he ever has, with average fastball velocity up to 95.3 mph compared to 92.5 mph his first year in MLB. It hasn’t necessarily translated to a high-quality pitch, however. While Kikuchi is getting whiffs at a 29.7% rate with his fastball, hitters are still getting good contact and hitting .315 against it. 

Although Kikuchi has improved his walk rate by five percentage points from last season, his bad starts are still marked by control issues and giving up the long ball while working behind in the count. The Blue Jays will need every solid performance they can get from Kikuchi in a competitive AL East, especially with Alek Manoah being optioned to the Florida Complex League. 

Kenta Maeda

The 35-year-old Twins right-hander is attempting a full comeback from Tommy John surgery in 2021. The veteran has faced several setbacks in his recovery. He took a 111.6 mph liner off his left foot against the Red Sox on April 20. In his next start against the Yankees, Maeda gave up a career-worst 10 runs in three innings. He was then placed on the IL with a strained triceps. 

Maeda completed his third rehab start for Triple-A St. Paul on June 10. He tossed four shutout innings and struck out five, and will be returning to the big league team in the coming weeks. “The (velocity) was good, the splitter was good, the slider was good. Everything was good,” said St. Paul manager Toby Gardenhire (link via Dean Spiros of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press).

Shintaro Fujinami

The Athletics signed Fujinami to a one-year, $3MM deal in January, with the A’s front office rolling the dice on Fujinami’s 100 mph fastball and potential plus strikeout stuff, despite control issues.

He opened the season in the rotation but was quickly moved to the bullpen at the end of April after allowing 24 runs in just 15 innings and walking 12 batters. It has been more of the same for the 29-year-old right-hander since moving to the bullpen, with a 11.12 ERA on the season while walking 17% of hitters.

It’s been a struggle for Fujinami to throw strikes to say the least. His 29 total walks is the most in MLB for pitchers under 40 innings thrown. When he does find the strike zone, the 6’6 righty is getting shelled. He has a hard hit percentage of 49%, which ranks in the seventh percentile.

Fujinami has dug himself a deep hole in terms of establishing himself as a big league pitcher, but he’s continuing to get opportunities to prove himself on an A’s pitching staff with minimal depth.

Kodai Senga, Brooks Raley Facing Injury Concerns

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8:02PM: Senga is day-to-day with tendinitis at the base of his index finger, the Mets announced.

5:41PM: Kodai Senga was supposed to make a Spring Training start for the Mets today, but Senga was scratched due to discomfort at the base of his right index finger.  Senga unfortunately isn’t the only Mets pitcher dealing with injury, as “a low-grade hamstring strain” has forced reliever Brooks Raley to be removed from the Team USA roster at the World Baseball Classic.  (Aaron Loup will take Raley’s place in the tournament.)

Mets manager Buck Showalter told reporters (including Newsday’s Tim Healey and MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo) that both Senga and Raley should still be able to be part of New York’s roster on Opening Day.  In regards to Senga, Showalter said the scratch was precautionary, and that “probably during the season, [Senga] would have pitched.”

As a reliever, Raley doesn’t need to rebuild as much arm strength in order to get back to full readiness.  Assuming his hamstring problem doesn’t linger, the left-hander might not require much ramp-up time to prepare for game action in the Mets’ remaining Grapefruit League schedule, or for the start of the regular sesason.

The Mets acquired Raley in a trade with the Rays back in December.  With Joely Rodriguez and Chasen Shreve departing in free agency, Raley was projected to be the top left-hander in the Mets bullpen, and perhaps even the only left-hander depending on how the club settles on its roster.  While the Amazins were comfortable with carrying only one southpaw (Rodriguez) in the pen for large portions of the 2022 season, having an all-righty relief corps probably isn’t preferable.  Since Joey Lucchesi is being stretched out as a starter, Raley’s injury might create an opportunity for minor league signing T.J. McFarland to break camp if Raley does indeed end up need more time to recover.

Senga will undergo imaging and tests on his hand, as the Mets will certainly take every precaution even if it seems as though Senga might have nothing more than a day-to-day setback.  Until the imaging results are known, however, the situation adds some level of concern over Senga’s highly-anticipated debut season in Major League Baseball.

Senga signed a five-year, $75MM contract with New York in December, as the 30-year-old’s strong track record in Nippon Professional Baseball generated plenty of interest in his services amongst MLB teams.  The New York Post’s Jon Heyman reported last month that the Mets did have some health-related questions about Senga prior to the agreement, though the exact nature of those concerns (and whether or not there’s any relation to Senga’s current finger problem) isn’t known.

Jose Quintana has already been sidelined with a stress fracture in his rib, so between Quintana’s injury and now this uncertainty over Senga, the Mets could potentially have two holes to fill in their rotation behind Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, and Carlos Carrasco.  David Peterson had a scare of his own after he was hit in the foot by a comebacker earlier this spring, but Peterson suffered only a contusion and threw a live batting practice session on Thursday, so the southpaw should still be in line to take Quintana’s place.  If Senga also has to miss time, Tylor Megill is likely the next choice up on the rotation depth chart.

One possible obstacle to Senga’s readiness could be his lack of spring action to date, as he has pitched in only one game thus far.  The Mets were slowly bringing Senga into game action in order to better acclimate the right-hander to his new league, as Senga continues to adjust to the larger baseballs and steeper mounds used in MLB, as opposed to what Senga was used to in Japan.

Meanwhile, Quintana’s recovery timeline is yet to be determined, with Showalter telling Healey and other reporters that “they got a couple other people to look at some things and try to decide the best mode of operation which to go, as soon as we know exactly what we’re dealing with.”

Mets Notes: Senga, DH, McNeil, Extensions

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One of the bigger moves of the Mets’ active offseason was the signing of starter Kodai Senga to a five-year, $75MM guarantee. The 30-year-old righty is making the jump from Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, where he posted a 2.59 ERA across 11 seasons. Senga was one of the highest-upside hurlers available in free agency, though there’s naturally some amount of performance risk until he translates his production against MLB competition.

Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports the Mets also expressed some concern about Senga’s medical evaluations before finalizing the contract in December. Further details aren’t clear, though Heyman notes Mets personnel have expressed confidence in Senga’s health prognosis for the upcoming season. That’s hardly surprising, as whatever concerns the organization had raised didn’t deter them from agreeing to the fourth-largest deal for a free agent pitcher this offseason. That contract also affords Senga an opportunity to opt out and retest the market after the 2025 season, though the Associated Press reports that’s contingent on the righty throwing a combined 400 innings over the next three years.

In other news out of Queens:

  • The Mets never pursued a full-time designated hitter upgrade this offseason partially out of a desire to preserve a path to at-bats for their younger hitters, writes Andy Martino of SNY. Top prospects Francicso Álvarez and Brett Baty each reached the majors late in the 2022 season. Each is a polished hitter but faces questions about their defense at catcher and third base, respectively. That’s also true of corner infielder Mark Vientos, who’s not quite the same caliber of prospect as Álvarez or Baty but earned an MLB look with a .280/.358/.519 showing at Triple-A Syracuse. Martino suggests the Mets aren’t likely to give them early-season looks at DH in hopes of each continuing to show progress defensively, though there could be a path to bat-only reps later in the year — or for veteran Eduardo Escobar to slide to DH if Baty seized the third base job at some point. Lefty-swinging veteran Daniel Vogelbach earned the larger share of a DH platoon to open the year with an excellent .261/.382/.497 showing against righties anyhow. Offseason signee Tommy Pham or last summer’s deadline pickup Darin Ruf are righty bats who could shoulder the load against southpaws. Ruf’s second-half struggles give Pham the upper hand in that regard, but Martino writes the Mets are at least likely to carry Ruf on the roster into Spring Training.
  • New York locked up one of their homegrown stars last Friday, signing Jeff McNeil to a four-year, $50MM extension to potentially buy out a trio of free agent years. General manager Billy Eppler addressed the deal earlier this week, expressing broad openness to negotiations with other important players who are early in their careers (link via Anthony DiComo of MLB.com). First baseman Pete Alonso is the most logical candidate for those kinds of talks as he enters his penultimate season of arbitration control, though neither Eppler nor Alonso’s representatives at Apex Baseball have indicated publicly whether discussions might take place over the coming weeks. Discussions with McNeil, at least, were a long time running before culminating in a deal. Will Sammon of the Athletic reports Eppler and McNeil’s camp at Paragon Sports International first opened extension talks in November 2021, just before the lockout froze communications between teams and 40-man roster players until March.
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