Kodai Senga Throws Bullpen Session, Could Return This Season
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.
Kodai Senga Likely To Miss Rest Of Regular Season Due To “High Grade” Calf Strain
TODAY: Senga has been moved to the 60-day injured list to open up a 40-man roster spot for Jesse Winker, who was officially acquired from the Nationals. Sept. 25 is now the earliest that Senga is eligible to return to action, but by all accounts his 2024 season seems to be over.
SATURDAY, 12:46PM: Senga has a “high grade” calf strain and isn’t likely to pitch again during the regular season, manager Carlos Mendoza told ESPN’s Jorge Castillo (X link) and other reporters. There is a rough recovery timeline of 8-10 weeks, so it is possible Senga might be available should the Mets make a postseason run.
11:24AM: Kodai Senga‘s first start of the 2024 season was cut short by injury, and the Mets announced today that the right-hander has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a left calf strain. Righty Eric Orze was also optioned to Triple-A Syracuse, and the two roster spots will be filled by Tylor Megill (called up from Triple-A) and new arrival Ryne Stanek (acquired yesterday in a trade with the Mariners).
After suffering a capsule strain in his shoulder during Spring Training, Senga’s recovery was delayed by some mechanical adjustments and then a triceps injury, pushing his season debut back to last night’s game against the Braves. Despite the long layoff, Senga was looking sharp, and finished the start with two earned runs on two hits and a walk over 5 1/3 innings of work. Unfortunately, that final out of Senga’s start saw the righty fall to the ground while leaving the mound during an Austin Riley pop-up, and Senga very gingerly walked off the field after consulting with team trainers.
Senga was scheduled to undergo an MRI today, and the results of that scan have now led to this immediate placement on the 15-day IL. More details on the severity of the strain will likely be revealed later today, though from the admittedly non-scientific method of looking at the obvious pain on Senga’s face in the aftermath of the injury, one would suspect he’ll be missing longer than just 15 days. Depending on the nature of the strain, it isn’t out of the question that Senga’s season could be in jeopardy.
Even if Senga is able to pitch again in 2024, the calf strain is another brutal setback in what has been a frustrating sophomore season for the righty in Major League Baseball. The longtime NPB star came to the majors with much fanfare when he signed a five-year, $75MM free agent deal with New York during the 2022-23 offseason, and immediately delivered on the hype by posting a 2.98 ERA over 166 1/3 innings in 2023. Amidst an otherwise hugely disappointing season for the Mets, Senga’s quick impact at least provided some hope that the franchise might be able to turn things around in relatively short order.
Ironically, the Mets have indeed gotten on track this year, except with virtually no contributions from Senga apart from Friday’s start. The rotation has been something of a weak link in general due to injuries, though the group of Sean Manaea, Luis Severino, and Jose Quintana have been solid if unspectacular. Senga’s return was supposed to add an ace alongside that trio, but New York has now been bit again by the injury bug, between Senga’s calf strain and Christian Scott‘s UCL strain.
Megill or Jose Butto could get another look in the rotation with Senga out, as Adrian Houser is probably no longer an option after being designated for assignment earlier this week. With the Mets increasingly looking like legitimate contenders, the trade deadline presents an obvious route for the Amazins to bring a new starter into the fold, though naturally such deals are difficult to find. Any new pitchers will add to New York’s already immense luxury tax bill, and president of baseball operations David Stearns might not be too keen on trading significant talent from the farm system.
Mets Notes: Bader, Megill, Gilbert, Williams
Harrison Bader has been out of the starting lineup for three of the Mets’ last five contests. He was penciled back into center field today before their game against the Cardinals was postponed.
On Tuesday, Bader expressed some frustration with his somewhat sporadic playing time in a chat with Mike Puma of the New York Post. “I don’t handle it well, I can tell you that,” the outfielder said about a reduced role. “But I certainly don’t let it affect the way I prepare, the way I keep focused when I do get an opportunity to go in there and play, even if it’s later in the game. If anything, it lights more of a fire under my ass. I’m bothered by it for sure. But I respect what they view as giving us an opportunity to win. And at the same time whether my name is in there or not I prepare to play every single day of the season.”
Bader stopped short of outwardly criticizing the coaching staff. However, he acknowledged that playing less “has been a challenge, not what (he) expected” when he signed a one-year, $10.5MM free agent deal. “I want to win, but I want to play,” he added. “We all want to play, but it’s hard. We have got a lot of guys and I respect the position that everyone is in. … I don’t know who makes the lineup, but whatever we have got going on I respect that position.”
The Gold Glove outfielder has started 26 of New York’s 36 games on the season. Manager Carlos Mendoza has turned to more of an outfield rotation recently. That’s largely a credit to DJ Stewart and Tyrone Taylor, both of whom are hitting well. Stewart, who has been limited to facing right-handed pitching, has made up for a lowly .185 average by drawing 17 walks and hitting four homers over 85 plate appearances. Taylor has a more conventional .288/.312/.425 batting line in 78 trips.
Stewart worked as the designated hitter for the season’s first couple weeks. J.D. Martinez has stepped into that role. The Mets have Starling Marte locked in as the primary right fielder. If Mendoza wants to get either Stewart or Taylor into the lineup, that generally necessitates pushing Brandon Nimmo to center and sitting Bader.
Bader is hitting .280/.314/.340 with one homer through 105 plate appearances. That has made him the least productive of the Mets’ outfielders offensively, at least by measure of wRC+, yet it’s solid work overall. Considering that Bader is also the team’s best defensive outfielder, he certainly hasn’t played his way out of the lineup. As Mendoza pointed out to Puma, it’s more so that Stewart and Taylor have so far outperformed their anticipated roles.
That all falls under the category of good problem to have, as the solid contributions from five outfielders gives the Mets cover if anyone struggles or suffers an injury. Aside from Nimmo, there were questions about everyone in that group heading into the season. Marte and Bader had career-worst offensive showings in 2023. Stewart is a 30-year-old who has never played more than 100 games in an MLB season. Taylor has primarily been a depth outfielder whom the Brewers flipped to New York for a minimal return over the winter.
The Mets also brought in Adrian Houser in that deal, though his tenure in Queens has gotten off to a much rockier start. Houser was at least temporarily pushed to the bullpen after struggling to an 8.16 ERA over his first six starts. The Mets called up top prospect Christian Scott last week to join Luis Severino, Jose Quintana, José Buttó and Sean Manaea in the rotation. Mendoza indicated they could go to a six-man rotation with a challenging section of the schedule coming up, but they’re also not far from having to make another decision with the pitching staff.
Tylor Megill has been on the injured list since departing his first start with a shoulder strain. The right-hander has made a trio of rehab outings, including four hitless innings with seven strikeouts at Triple-A Syracuse on Tuesday. Mendoza said Megill will make another start for Syracuse on Sunday before the team reinstates him (X link via Puma). It remains to be seen if he’ll reclaim a spot on the MLB staff. Megill still has a pair of minor league options, so the Mets could keep him in Triple-A even when he’s fully healthy.
In other injury news, prospects Jett Williams and Drew Gilbert are seeking a return to game action by the end of the month or early in June, according to MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo. Williams has been delayed by a right wrist injury, while Gilbert suffered a right hamstring strain. Williams, the 14th overall pick in the 2022 draft, started the season at Double-A Binghamton. Gilbert, acquired in last summer’s Justin Verlander trade, opened the year in Syracuse after a huge finish in Double-A last season.
NL East Notes: Ozuna, Turnbull, Mets, Senga, Megill, Cavalli
“There’s no way you want to go explore somewhere else when you feel comfortable, when you’ve got your teammates and you’ve got your organization’s love. There’s no doubt in my decision. I don’t want to go anywhere else,” Marcell Ozuna told The Athletic’s David O’Brien about his desire to sign a contract extension with the Braves. Ozuna’s four-year, $65MM deal is up at season’s end, though the Braves hold a $16MM club option for 2025 that looks like a sure bet to be exercised give how well Ozuna is performing at the plate. Coming off a 40-homer campaign in 2023, Ozuna has stayed hot by hitting .344/.419/.677 over his first 105 plate appearances in 2024, leading the National League with nine homers.
The idea of Ozuna remaining in Atlanta over the long term would’ve seemed far-fetched a year ago. The veteran struggled badly over the first two seasons of his contract, and that two-year stint also included an arrest on a DUI charge, and a 20-game suspension under MLB’s joint domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse policy. Since the Braves reportedly never considered parting ways with Ozuna in the wake of these issues or his lack of production on the field, it would stand to reason that the team would be open to some kind of longer-term commitment beyond just the club option year. Some obvious obstacles exist — Ozuna will be 35 in November 2025 and is essentially a DH-only player at this point in his career, plus Atlanta’s payroll is already at team-record heights in both pure dollars and in luxury tax value.
More from the NL East…
- Taijuan Walker is expected to be activated from the 15-day injured list on Sunday to start the Phillies‘ game against the Padres. A shoulder impingement delayed Walker’s 2024 debut, and it also created an opportunity for Spencer Turnbull to open some eyes as the fill-in starter in Philadelphia’s rotation. With an outstanding 1.33 ERA over 27 innings and five starts, Turnbull has certainly pitched well enough to remain in the starting mix, but Rob Thomson told the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Alex Coffey (X link) and other reporters that a decision will be held off on Turnbull’s next step until after Walker throws on Sunday. Turnbull could get a proper start on Tuesday, or be part of a piggyback start with Cristopher Sanchez in Monday’s game. With Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Ranger Suarez, Sanchez, and Turnbull all looking great thus far in the season, Walker’s return gives the Phillies a rare pitching surplus at the moment, and creates a nice problem for the team to navigate.
- In some Mets injury updates, Kodai Senga will throw a live batting practice session on Monday, and Tylor Megill will begin a minor league rehab assignment today with high-A Brooklyn. (The Athletic’s Tim Britton was among those to report the news.) Senga has yet to pitch this season due to a moderate posterior capsule strain suffered during Spring Training, and because of his placement on the 60-day injured list, won’t be eligible to join the Mets until May 27 at the earliest. Megill pitched in one game before a shoulder strain sent him to the 15-day IL. Megill and Senga could each potentially be part of a six-man rotation over the next six weeks, as Britton writes that New York is considering using an extra starter to keep everyone fresh through a busy stretch of the schedule.
- Cade Cavalli is set for a live batting practice session on Monday, his first time facing real hitters since undergoing Tommy John surgery in March 2023. Cavalli updated reporters (including MASNsports.com’s Bobby Blanco) about his rehab progress, as the plan is for the right-hander to start a minor league rehab assignment in the middle of May. Nationals manager Davey Martinez then views Cavalli’s return to the majors for “sometime at the end of June, maybe July.” The 22nd overall pick of the 2020 draft pitched in exactly one MLB game before his career was put on pause by the TJ procedure, and assuming all goes well health-wise, Cavalli should now be in line for his extended stint in a big league rotation.
Mets Place Tylor Megill on Injured List
April 2: Megill will be shut down from throwing for five to seven days before being reevaluated, writes Mike Puma of the New York Post. The right-hander said after his IL placement that he felt discomfort when throwing a curveball to begin the fourth inning of his season debut. That discomfort wasn’t as severe as the pain he felt when he suffered the 2022 shoulder strain that shelved him for multiple months.
April 1: The Mets announced Monday that they’ve placed righty Tylor Megill on the 15-day injured list after an MRI revealed a strain in his right shoulder. Megill exited his first start of the season after just four innings and 78 pitches. Right-hander Reed Garrett has been recalled from Triple-A Syracuse in his place for the time being, though Garrett isn’t a rotation option. He’ll give the Mets a fresh arm in the bullpen for now, but they’ll likely make another move to bring up a starter once Megill’s spot in the rotation comes back up. The team has not yet announced the severity of Megill’s strain or a potential timetable for his return.
Megill, 28, moved into the rotation during spring training after Kodai Senga suffered a shoulder strain of his own. He’d been slated to be one of the team’s top depth options but opened the year in the starting five instead. Now, it seems that assignment will only last the one start. Megill two runs (one earned) on three hits and three walks with four strikeouts against the Brewers before incurring the injury. It’s not the first time he’s battled shoulder injuries in his career; a shoulder strain sent Megill to the 60-day injured list as recently as 2022.
Megill made 27 starts with the Mets in 2021-22, and while he wasn’t slated to open the 2023 season in the rotation, injuries thrust him onto last year’s starting staff and led him to make a career-high 25 starts. In that time, Megill worked to a 4.70 ERA with an 18.5% strikeout rate and 10.5% walk rate. Those numbers roughly line up with his career marks. He’s pitched in parts of four MLB seasons, including his lone 2024 outing, and owns a 4.68 ERA 22.3% strikeout rate, 8.7% walk rate and 42.7% ground-ball rate.
With Megill shelved, the Mets’ four healthy starters are Jose Quintana, Sean Manaea, Adrian Houser and Luis Severino. In-house options to step into the vacated spot include left-hander Joey Lucchesi and righty Jose Butto — the latter of whom was the final member of the spring rotation competition won by Megill. The Mets also have prospects Mike Vasil, Dominic Hamel and Christian Scott all on the cusp of MLB readiness, but none of that trio is on the 40-man roster. Both Lucchesi and Butto are.
East Notes: Caminero, Senzel, Megill
After hitting his first Triple-A home run earlier in the game, Rays top prospect Junior Caminero was forced to make an early exit from Sunday afternoon’s contest against the Norfolk Tides. He injured his left quad while running to first. According to Kristie Ackert of the Tampa Bay Times, Caminero “limped the last few steps to first base and eventually needed to be helped off the field.”
Caminero is set for further evaluation tomorrow. The severity of his injury is not yet clear, but it is worrisome that he was unable to walk off the field without assistance. The 20-year-old infielder is a consensus top-10 prospect in the game. While he failed to earn a spot on Tampa Bay’s Opening Day roster, he was a likely candidate to earn a call-up mid-season after gaining some experience at Triple-A. The extent of his injury will surely play a role in how soon he can make an impact at the big league level.
The Rays are already low on infield depth early in the season. Shortstop Taylor Walls is currently out recovering from offseason hip surgery, while first/second/third baseman Jonathan Aranda broke a finger during spring training. In addition, utility player Amed Rosario made his first two starts in right field with outfielders Josh Lowe and Jonny DeLuca on the IL.
More news from around MLB’s East divisions…
- The Nationals got some good news on Saturday, learning that third baseman Nick Senzel will not need surgery to repair his broken thumb (per Mark Zuckerman of MASN). That should mean he’ll return to play significantly sooner than he otherwise would. Senzel, 28, is no longer the top prospect he once was, but the Nationals were counting on him to keep third base warm this season on a one-year deal. Trey Lipscomb, 23, has done good work covering the hot corner over the past two days – he hit his first big league home run this afternoon – but presumably, the Nationals would rather the youngster get a little more seasoning in Triple-A. He was supposed to start there this season before Senzel’s injury rushed him to the show.
- Mets right-hander Tylor Megill left his start early on Sunday, pitching just four innings against the Brewers. After the game, bench coach John Gibbons told reporters (including Joel Sherman of the New York Post) that Megill’s shoulder felt tender and he would need an MRI. Shoulder pain is particularly troubling for Megill, who spent three months on the IL in 2022 with a shoulder strain. Thus, the Mets will hope the MRI doesn’t reveal any serious damage. New York is already thin on starting pitching: Kodai Senga is nursing a shoulder injury of his own, while David Peterson will be out until late May after offseason hip surgery. Finally, Max Kranick, whom the Mets picked up as additional starting depth this winter, is on the IL with a hamstring strain.
Mets Name Tylor Megill Fifth Starter, Option Jose Butto
The Mets are optioning right-hander Jose Butto to Triple-A Syracuse and will open the season with righty Tylor Megill as their fifth starter, manager Carlos Mendoza announced to the team’s beat this morning (X link via Tim Healey of Newsday). He’ll join Jose Quintana, Sean Manaea, Adrian Houser and Luis Severino in the team’s rotation to begin the season.
Megill, 28, is no stranger to the Mets’ rotation. Injuries elsewhere on the roster led to him making 25 starts for the team last season, and he’d started 27 games combined in the two seasons prior. However, an offseason full of mid-range pitching acquisitions for the Mets — Manaea, Severino and Houser all joined the team this winter — pushed Megill back down the depth chart. Were it not for right-hander Kodai Senga‘s shoulder injury, he’d likely have been ticketed for Syracuse himself.
Instead, Megill competed with Butto and did enough to convince the team he was the preferred option. Both righties pitched well. Megill has tossed 15 2/3 innings and held opponents to six runs on a dozen hits and four walks with 16 strikeouts. Butto yielded just one run in 10 innings and turned in a sharp 9-to-2 K/BB ratio. Megill is the older and more experienced of the two, and he’ll get the first look in rotation while Senga is sidelined. In 263 1/3 big league innings over the past three seasons, Megill has posted a 4.72 ERA, 22.3% strikeout rate, 8.6% walk rate, 42.9% ground-ball rate and 1.50 HR/9.
Megill has flirted with a long-term rotation spot before and will again get a chance to prove himself to Mets higher-ups early in the 2024 campaign. Senga has yet to resume throwing, as his initial three-week shutdown has been stretched at least another seven to ten days. He’ll need to fully build his arm strength back up whenever he’s cleared to throw. That’ll likely be a weekslong process. Megill ought to have the first month of the season to make a positive impression. It’s always possible injuries crop up elsewhere on the starting staff and extend that window; Severino and Quintana, in particular, have had their share of health troubles in recent seasons.
As for Butto, he’ll head to Syracuse to begin the season but may not be down long. The Mets, as Healey points out, have a stretch of 13 games without an off-day early in their season and could look for a spot starter along the way. Butto is expected to be the next man up in the rotation and would be the leading candidate for that role, if needed. In 42 innings with the Mets last year, Butto logged a 3.64 ERA with a 21.2% strikeout rate, 12.8% walk rate, 42.2% grounder rate and 0.64 HR/9. He was hit hard in 19 Triple-A starts last year but posted solid numbers between Double-A and Triple-A back in 2022. He’s entering his final minor league option year and is still controllable for six seasons.
NL East Notes: Marlins, Phillies, Mets
Marlins left-hander Trevor Rogers didn’t make his scheduled rehab start yesterday due to an issue in his non-throwing shoulder, according to Craig Mish of the Miami Herald. The club is currently waiting for medical results before making a decision on how to proceed with Rogers, who could be back on the mound in Triple-A as soon as early next week if the impending medical update is encouraging. Rogers has made just four starts for the Marlins this year while battling a biceps strain. In those starts, Rogers posted a solid 4.00 ERA (111 ERA+) with a 4.11 FIP and 19 strikeouts in 18 innings of work, though he did struggle with his command as he hit three batters and walked six in that time.
After Rogers’s setback, the Marlins may be left looking for rotation options in the near future, as Mish indicates that the club is hoping to “slow down” youngster Eury Perez, who has already pitched 60 innings this season between Triple-A and the majors after throwing just 77 innings total last season. The 20-year-old phenom has been excellent in 29 innings in the majors this season, with a sterling 2.17 ERA. That being said, Perez’s 24.8% strikeout rate, 10.7% walk rate, and unsightly 27.3% groundball rate all leave something to be desired, resulting in a less inspiring 4.34 FIP.
Mish suggests that the Marlins may limit the young right-hander to somewhere between 100 and 115 innings during the 2023 campaign, and the club is hoping to have Perez available later in the season. A natural time to slow Perez down seemed to be on the horizon with Rogers’s pending return, but with the lefty’s timetable less clear, the Marlins may need to look elsewhere to cover for Perez’s starts if they wish to manage his innings headed into the summer.
More from around the NL East…
- Phillies fans got positive injury news regarding a pair of young right-handers yesterday, as Rule 5 draft pick Noah Song is set to begin work in sim games in the coming week, as noted by Alex Coffey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Song posted impressive numbers in 2019 after the Red Sox drafted him in the fourth round of that year’s draft, though he has not thrown a profession pitch since due to his service as an officer in the US Navy from 2020-2022 and this year’s injury woes. Coffey also notes that top pitching prospect Andrew Painter, who has been out since Spring Training while rehabbing a UCL sprain, threw a 20-pitch bullpen session yesterday. A consensus top prospect int he sport ranked as high as #5 by Baseball America entering the 2023 season, the 20-year-old Painter seemed poised to claim the fifth starter job in Philadelphia before the UCL injury left him shut down from baseball activity. Painter’s return to the mound is sure to breed optimism among fans in Philadelphia, though Coffey notes that manager Rob Thomson gave no update to Painter’s timetable for return ahead of yesterday’s bullpen session.
- Mike Puma of the New York Post suggested today that the Mets could look to skip the next start of right-hander Tylor Megill, who has struggled to a 5.14 ERA in 63 innings as a regular member of the club’s rotation this season. Things have gotten particularly difficult for Megill over the past three weeks, and the young right-hander has posted a ghastly 8.64 ERA in his last four starts, walking a whopping twelve batters while striking out just fourteen in 16 2/3 innings of work. As Puma notes, the club won’t require a fifth starter until they face the Astros on June 20, allowing them to either skip Megill’s next start and use him out of the bullpen for a period of time, or perhaps option Megill to Triple-A before giving Joey Lucchesi or David Peterson a look in the rotation. Manager Buck Showalter acknowledged that coming off days provide the club with flexibility, “especially in the bullpen if we wanted to add an arm.”
Mets Place Justin Verlander On Injured List
March 31: The Mets have now officially placed Verlander on the IL and recalled Megill, per Tim Healey of Newsday. The move is retroactive to March 28.
March 30: The Mets announced that they will place right-hander Justin Verlander on the 15-day injured list with a “low-grade teres major strain.” According to the team, Verlander “will continue throwing at moderate intensity” and be reevaluated in a week. They’ll provide a further update at that time. Righty Tylor Megill will be recalled from Triple-A and take Verlander’s spot in the rotation for the time being, tweets Anthony DiComo of MLB.com.
The 40-year-old Verlander’s velocity was down in his final outing of spring training, but the team hadn’t hinted at any type of injury until today’s out-of-the-blue announcement. General manager Billy Eppler tells the Mets beat that Verlander first reported discomfort last night and had an MRI this morning (Twitter link via Newsday’s Tim Healey). Verlander himself said he was working through some things that he initially attributed to routine spring discomfort (video link via DiComo). However, when he felt continued discomfort into his final bullpen of spring training and “connected the dots” with his decreased velocity in his most recent spring outing, he decided to get checked out.
Until next week’s follow-up MRI, it’ll be impossible to know just how long Verlander might be sidelined. He’s voiced confidence that it’s minor in nature and said he’d pitch if this occurred during the postseason. That’s encouraging, but even a brief absence is notable.
The Mets are already without one of Verlander’s fellow offseason signees, left-hander Jose Quintana, who will miss upwards of half the season following a bone graft procedure to remove a benign lesion from his ribcage. Quintana’s injury pushed sixth starter David Peterson into the rotation, and they’ll now already be tapping into Megill, their No. 7 option, before a single inning of their season has transpired.
Verlander lost the 2021 season to Tommy John surgery and not only returned in 2022 but improbably stormed back to ace status at age 39, winning the American League Cy Young Award on the heels of a 1.75 ERA over 175 innings. He punched out 27.8% of his opponents against a masterful 4.4% walk rate, averaging 95.1 mph on his heater along the way and generally looking like his typical, dominant self. That brilliant comeback prompted the Mets to make a two-year, $86.66MM offer, matching the annual value on the record-setting contract they’d given to co-ace Max Scherzer.
Assuming Verlander’s absence indeed proves brief, he’ll still be expected to pair with Scherzer and give the Mets two of this generation’s most accomplished arms atop the starting staff. Still, it’s surely a gut-punch to a team that moved on from now-former ace Jacob deGrom largely for durability reasons in recent years. Verlander can be placed on the IL retroactive to March 27 — three days is the largest backdating permissible under MLB rules — so he’ll be shelved for at least the first 12 days of the season.
David Peterson Wins Mets’ Final Rotation Spot; Tylor Megill Optioned To Triple-A
Left-hander David Peterson has won the final spot in the Mets’ rotation over righty Tylor Megill, as first reported Jon Heyman of the New York Post. Megill has been optioned to Triple-A, the team announced this afternoon. He’ll work out of the rotation there (as Abbey Mastracco of the New York Daily News reported earlier in the day).
The 27-year-old Peterson fired a dozen scoreless frames this season and remarkably allowed just one hit, although he also issued a troubling eight free passes. He overcame that shaky command both with the lack of hits and by punching out 13 of the 45 hitters he faced (28.9%). Megill, meanwhile, allowed 10 runs (seven earned) on 14 hits and 13 walks with a dozen strikeouts in 17 innings during Grapefruit League play.
A former first-round pick, Peterson has seen action in parts of three seasons with the Mets and generally fared well, logging a 4.26 ERA while fanning nearly a quarter of his opponents through 222 MLB frames. His career 10.7% walk rate is too high, but Peterson’s slider is a true bat-missing offering (47.9% whiff rate in 2022, per Statcast) and his changeup has been good enough to help keep right-handed opponents off balance. On many teams, he’d be locked into a rotation spot in the first place, but the deep-pocketed Mets spent extensively this offseason to fill out a rotation that saw Jacob deGrom, Chris Bassitt and Taijuan Walker depart as free agents.
Unfortunately, one of the arms signed to replace that outgoing trio was lefty Jose Quintana, who’ll miss upwards of half the season while recovering from a bone graft procedure to address a benign lesion on his ribcage. Peterson is a much better sixth starter option than many teams can afford, and given that he posted a 3.83 ERA in 105 2/3 frames last year, he could well parlay this opportunity into a more permanent rotation spot. Carlos Carrasco is a free agent at season’s end, and Max Scherzer has an opt-out in his contract.
Like Peterson, Megill is 27 years old and is a better depth option than many teams boast. The right-hander made 18 starts in 2021 and posted a 4.52 ERA with more impressive strikeout and walk rates (26.1% and 7.1%, respectively). He made six starts early in the 2022 season as well, logging a pristine 2.43 ERA with a huge 36-to-8 K/BB ratio in 33 1/3 innings of work while flashing an upper-90s heater that had added significant velocity since the 2021 season.
Unfortunately for both Megill and the Mets, a biceps injury shelved him into June, and he quickly returned to the injured list due to a shoulder strain. He wound up finishing the season with an ugly 5.13 ERA, though his early work is a reminder of the raw quality of his arsenal. Megill has stymied right-handed opponents to the tune of a .202/.247/.331 batting line in his career, but lefties have torched him for a .307/.368/.368 clip. He’ll continue working to find some answers against lefties while working out of the rotation in Syracuse. He’s likely the next man up if the Mets need another starter early in the season.