The Mets are facing off against the Phillies in the National League Division Series, with the first game set for Saturday afternoon. Manager Carlos Mendoza told reporters today that right-hander Kodai Senga will start that first game for the Mets. Mike Puma of The New York Post was among those to relay the news on X.
The Mets have received close to nothing from Senga this year. He suffered a capsule strain in his throwing shoulder in Spring Training, which kept him on the injured list for months. He was reinstated off the injured list and made his season debut on July 26, but was removed from that game after 5 1/3 innings due to a calf strain and went right back on the IL. He tried to return late in the regular season but was slowed by some triceps soreness.
That lack of production from Senga was a blow to the Mets. He made his major league debut in 2023 and tossed 166 1/3 innings with a 2.98 earned run average. His 11.1% walk rate was on the high side but he struck out 29.1% of batters faced and got grounders at a 44.7% clip. Despite that, the Mets managed to squeak into the postseason and then defeat the Brewers in the Wild Card series while Senga remained on the IL.
Yesterday, Will Sammon of Athletic reported that the Mets were considering Senga for their NLDS roster. Now it seems that the righty will not only get a roster spot but will take the ball to get the series started.
The question will be what the Mets can expect from Senga after so much time off. Per Sammon’s report, he recently threw a 25-pitch bullpen session but will probably be limited to a short outing, so perhaps this will be Senga acting more as an opener than a true starter in the classically understood sense. “We’ll see,” Mendoza said today when asked about how long Senga can go, per Anthony DiComo of MLB.com on X. “We’re going to let it play out.”
The Mets have had to get creative with their pitching staff lately. Two of their games against Atlanta in the final week of the regular season were delayed by Hurricane Helene. While 28 of the 30 clubs in the league had the day off on Monday, those two clubs had to play a double-header as each still needed a victory to get into the playoffs. The Mets won the first game in an 8-7 thriller, using Tylor Megill as the starter and then four relievers, including closer Edwin Díaz throwing 40 pitchers as he got the final five outs.
With their playoff spot secured, they used Joey Lucchesi and two relievers to get through the second game of the twin bill, but then they had to start their series in Milwaukee the very next day. Luis Severino started the first game, Sean Manaea the second and Jose Quintana the third. To get through last night’s game, Díaz threw another 39 pitches while again getting five outs and starter David Peterson also tossed an inning of relief.
None of the club’s front three of Severino, Manaea or Quintana would be available on regular rest for Saturday’s first game against Philadelphia. Megill would be an option to take some bulk innings, but he was left off the Wild Card roster since he wasn’t going to be available for those contests. If both Senga and Megill are to be added, the Mets would have to open two spots by leaving off a couple of guys that were present of the Wild Card round. Peterson could perhaps be another option for bulk innings, as he tossed seven innings as recently as September 29.
The full roster decisions don’t have to be publicly announced until Saturday morning. Senga is on the 60-day IL and will need to be added back onto the 40-man roster, but the Mets could easily open a spot by transferring Paul Blackburn or Dedniel Núñez onto the 60-day IL. The Phillies have announced that Zack Wheeler will start game one, followed by Cristopher Sánchez in game two.
davidk1979
Wha?
cainer18
They said KODAI SENGA TO START NLDS GAME ONE FOR METS
davidk1979
What?
DarkSide830
HUUUUUUH?
YankeesBleacherCreature
@Cainer said:
Dijeron que KODAI SENGA COMENZARÁ EL PRIMER JUEGO DE LA NLDS PARA LOS METS.
Ils ont dit que KODAI SENGA COMMENCERA LE PREMIER JEU NLDS POUR LES METS.
JohnnyTrident
What?
YankeesBleacherCreature
Hanno detto che KODAI SENGA INIZIERA’ LA PRIMA PARTITA DI NLDS PER I METS.
settledownitsjustagame
That was the Mets plan all along.
Lefty_Orioles_Fan
Now, this is stylish!!!!!
Hope he can stay healthy,.,,,plus he must have been throwing all along
How did he keep it a secret or maybe they/he didn’t
Still though, very stylish
10centBeerNight
Wow.
mad1
Phils will light him up
Johnny Angel
I love my Phillies but don’t count on it.
MetsWinAndTheWorldSpinsBackwards
I hope not. Psychics, gotta love them. They know everything you do not in the future, except their own futures and death.
raisinsss
The ghost of Kodai throwing the ghost fork.
G1.
Ballsy.
joe_roc
Must be an opener for Megill
VonPurpleHayes
Bold strategy, but the Mets seem to have the mojo right now.
Johnny Angel
Von and I agree!!!
Ma4170
Our teams finally meet in a postseason series! This should be a fun one… Phillies the stronger team, Mets the hotter team. Hope it lives up to expectations.
VonPurpleHayes
The new format always favors the hotter team. Phils benefited from it in 2022. Fair is fair.
sfes
As hot as we are the Phils are much more of a complete playoff caliber team than the Mets are. It will be interesting though. Starting Senga like this, I’m not sure what to think. It’s either genius or insane.
JohnnyTrident
Great. Another Asian
Inside Out
Wtf? How racist are you?
JohnnyTrident
I’m 1/2 of a mixed race couple. Obviously I’m not
rct
Then what does your comment mean?
JohnnyTrident
It means we’re growing the game. Forgot the exclamation point. Great! Another Asian
rct
Sure you did. You’re low-energy trolling and it’s stupid. Get another hobby.
Ronk325
Troll accounts like this usually make nothing but throwaway comments but this one actually gave me a good laugh
VonPurpleHayes
Lol! It’s amazing what punctuation does.
JohnnyTrident
Scroll up a bit where the dude says they’ll light him up. That’s not racist? A direct reference to WW2 and he thought it would get past us non racists.
VonPurpleHayes
Ugh. Probably shouldn’t have given him the benefit of the doubt. My bad.
Datashark
Spring Training game for Senga….this will be something to see if this works in game 1 — phillies scouting might not be up to date on him either.
Doubt they have him go more than 3 innings.- if he can get there
rct
Seems risky but if Senga and the team’s medical staff agree that he’s good to go, bring it on!
chemfinancing
Not risky. If the player is healthy (which he is) there is no reason to pay them all that money to rest an injury that isn’t that serious
rct
“Not risky.”
Man, some people will argue anything. Dude has pitched exactly one inning since July and is coming off of *two* injuries but yeah, sure. Zero risk involved on “an injury that isn’t that serious”, despite sidelining him for virtually the entire season. Good grief.
VonPurpleHayes
I thought Severino would be the better option, but maybe Senga serves as an opener. Phillies bats will be ice cold considering they haven’t played meaningful baseball in well over a week. I’m not feeling particularly confident even though I think the Phillies are the better team.
Johnny Angel
Agree with von.
chemfinancing
How exciting!
Skyrider123
This either works or it doesnt. Either way, it sets up the rest of the rotation on regular rest.
jkoko
Hasn’t pitched since July 27th. I’m assuming he will be an opener on a strict pitch limit. Leave it to the Mets to risk this guys long term health
raisinsss
Are you a bot acct?
10centBeerNight
This series shaping up to be baseball at its very best. 2 great teams with superstars at the top of their game. Truly exciting
JohnnyTrident
Even though the Mets get credited with starting the cocaine era in baseball, Pittsburgh was the source city.
Jerry Hairston Jr's Toupee
Starting a pen game….
ny papi
OMGhost!
jerseyjohn
Bold move! As a Yankee fan I’m hoping he gets rocked and they run through their whole pen.
UncleJesse
Not a Yankees fan but it’s going to he hilarious watching the Mets overpay for Alonso this winter. Now the fan base that has been crying about him all year loves him just because of that HR last night.
Also Phillies are going to take them to the woodshed.
jerseyjohn
Alonso is gonna be terrible as soon as next year. If he gets more than 3 years I’d be amazed.
JohnnyTrident
The Roy Halladay, Joe Blanton, Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt, Cole Hamels Phillies were better
UncleJesse
The 8 ball sniffin 86 Mets were better I hate to say it!
whyhayzee
The Mets just signed Papelbon to close if Diaz isn’t available.
Rsox
It’s interesting that 3 of the 4 playoff match ups this round are all divisional rivals. The regular season records for each series:
NYM vs Phi (Phillies won the season series 7-6)
SD vs LAD (Padres won season series 8-5)
Det vs Cle (Guardians won season series 7-6)
LGM!
He won one game this year. If they lost that game, no playoffs. Just a fact.