The New York Mets now have a tough timeline for Kodai Senga’s restoration from a proper shoulder harm.
Supervisor Carlos Mendoza advised the media Sunday morning that their ace beginning pitcher had returned to New York from their spring coaching house in Port St. Lucie to obtain a platelet-rich plasma injection in his shoulder. He is been shut down for 3 weeks. Then, relying on how Senga’s shoulder feels, he’ll resume a throwing program.
Since spring coaching is barely per week outdated, Senga can be beginning just about on the very starting when his shoulder is feeling higher. A full spring ramp up is often six weeks, so he’ll doubtless be spending no less than the primary month of the common season on the injured record. And that is the best-case situation.
This can be a setback for the Mets, particularly since Senga was doubtless going to be their Opening Day starter, however it does give them an opportunity to seek out one thing they could want: a sixth starter.
Discovering a dependable sixth starter is perhaps the important thing to preserving Senga’s numbers up in 2024. In 2023, he put up a 2.98 ERA with 202 strikeouts over 166 1/3 innings. He hadn’t pitched that many innings in a single season since 2019, averaging round 128 innings from 2020-22 in Japan, however the Mets have been capable of handle that leap by having Senga pitch as soon as per week (each sixth day, which is how usually starters pitch in NBP) as an alternative of each fifth day, as is widespread in MLB. He made 17 begins on 5 days’ relaxation in 2023, in comparison with simply three on 4 days’ relaxation.
However to make that association work, the Mets want one other starter of their rotation. So the glass-half-full tackle Senga’s harm is that his absence will permit the Mets to discover a dependable sixth starter to maintain round after Senga comes again. That does not do a lot to cushion the blow of the Mets dropping their ace for no less than the primary month of the common season, however there actually aren’t a whole lot of methods to spin that positively.
