After Kodai Senga struggled for a third consecutive start, failing to get out of the third inning of the Mets' 3-0 loss in the second game of Sunday’s doubleheader, the right-hander’s role with the club is up in the air.
“I’m gonna have a conversation with David, see what’s next,” manager Carlos Mendoza said, referring to Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns. “But, obviously, it’s not good enough.”
Senga allowed three runs on three hits and three walks and a hit batter in 2.2 innings, pushing his ERA to 9.00 and WHIP to 1.950 through 20 innings on the year.
“These past few games, I am not able to do my role as a starting pitcher, giving up runs early in the game,” Senga said, speaking through an interpreter, after New York dropped a third straight to Colorado.
Would the Mets see if Senga would agree to a minor league assignment as he did at the end of the 2025 season? “Like I said, we just got done, but I’m pretty sure we’re gonna have conversations. What are the options here?” Mendoza said.
"I don’t know what’s gonna come,” Senga said when asked about his future. “But I know that the performance out on the field isn’t something where I can be like, ‘Oh, I’m gonna be in the rotation or this, and that is gonna happen.’ I don’t know what’s gonna happen.”
Asked if he would accept an assignment to Triple-A, Senga said, “I think that warrants a lot of discussions with a lot of different people. I can’t give you a yes or a no answer right now.”
An issue that could limit the Mets’ options with Senga and prevent him from moving to the bullpen is his rather regimented routine to build up to be ready to pitch and that could be difficult to translate to being in the bullpen. Asked if his routine could adapt to coming on in relief, he said, “I’ve done it in the past, so I don’t think that’s an issue.”
Senga had a decent start to the season – allowing four runs on nine hits over 11.2 innings wth 16 strikeouts to five walks – after a solid spring training, said it is a mechanical issue rather than a mental one to explain his recent struggles.
Mendoza pointed to a “combination of a lot of things” to explain the right-hander’s recent struggles, but pointed to Senga losing velocity on his four-seam fastball as the main culprit.
During the spring, Senga was throwing the ball hard and in his first start of the year in St. Louis posted an average fastball velocity of 97.4 mph, which is up 2.7 mph from his average velocity last season.
“We saw when he’s at his best, it’s 97 [mph] plus,” Mendoza said of the heater. “Today we saw a lot of 95, 96.”
Of course, Senga was effective in years past with his fastball at a bit lower velocity. Mendoza said there have been recent outings where there have been “too much nibbling with the cutter, with the sweeper as opposed to staying on the attack.”
That was an issue for Senga during his last outing in Chicago when he allowed seven runs (six earned) on six hits over 3.1 innings with three strikeouts and three walks. That wasn't the case on Sunday afternoon as he pumped in mostly forkballs and fastballs through the first two frames, as those two pitches accounted for 32 of his first 34 offerings.
“Today they got him on some of the fastballs that he threw,” Mendoza said.
On Sunday, Senga averaged 95.1 mph on his 30 four-seam fastballs, which was down 1.2 mph from his season average. And notably, the big hit came when Rockies catcher Hunter Goodman took a good low-and-away 94.4 mph fastball and smacked it 390 feet, 104.9 mph off the bat the other way to right-center for a two-run home run in the third inning.
“When the pitches don’t have as much life approaching the hitter, approaching the catcher, with how high the level this league is, that’s just how the results end up being,” Senga said of his struggles.