Kodai Senga has pushed the Mets into a corner.
What was supposed to be a useful season has turned into a mess, and the numbers tell the story plainly. Senga has a 25.45% strikeout rate, but that hasn’t come close to offsetting 27 walks in 39.1 innings or the ugly 8.69 ERA hanging over his year. When he’s been on the mound, hitters have been able to do damage, and the only pitch in his mix that has graded out as above-average by run value is his well-known forkball.
The Mets already tried moving him to the bullpen after he completely flamed out as a starter. That change hasn’t fixed much either. In 11.2 innings as a reliever, he’s allowed three homers and five walks, and opposing batters have continued to square him up when he does throw strikes.
With one guaranteed year left on his deal and a 2028 club option still attached, New York doesn’t have many clean answers. If Senga won’t agree to another trip to the minors, the Mets may have no choice but to keep running him out there and hope something changes at the major league level.
There is one blunt alternative: cut him by designating him for assignment. But that would leave the Mets on the hook for $15 million in dead money before the 2027 lockout, a hit that could matter a lot in a post-lockout landscape.
That’s why the more realistic path may be to keep searching for some kind of role that can at least salvage value. Senga did accept a demotion to Triple-A in September of last year, but that doesn’t appear to be in play now. The bullpen may be the only route left for both sides.
His starter background at least gives the Mets some flexibility. In a long-relief role, he could cover multiple innings, and while that hasn’t worked well this season, there would still be teams interested in a bulk reliever with his track record, even at a hefty salary. If he can put together a better second half in that kind of role, he might become movable over the offseason.
There’s also the possibility of narrowing him down even further. The Mets could use him as a true fireman, asking for just one inning at a time and leaning into a heater-forkball combination that could play up in short bursts. That would make the contract harder to swallow, but it would also strip away some of the extra baggage in his arsenal.
And if the season keeps sliding, there’s even a darker use for him. If the Mets sell at the trade deadline, Senga could wind up as something of a secret weapon in the tanking game. It’s not a glamorous assignment, and it’s not really a position on the depth chart, but it reflects where things stand for both the player and the team right now.
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