The Mets badly need rotation help, and they’re hoping that right-hander Kodai Senga will soon be able to provide it. They’re a bit more optimistic after his Thursday rehab start with Double-A Binghamton.
In his first outing since being scratched from a rehab start with ulnar nerve pain, Senga went six innings against Double-A Somerset, allowing one solo home run and one walk while striking out five. The home run was the only hit he gave up in 75 pitches. Manager Carlos Mendoza said it was an “encouraging” outing.
“It shows you that he threw strikes and he competed in the strike zone, so it was good to see it,” Mendoza said Friday at Citi Field. “The goal is for him to get a bullpen [in New York], and I’m pretty sure he’s going to have another one in the minor leagues. It’s day-to-day to see how he responds from that last one last night, and then we’ll go from there.”
The Mets plan to give Senga another rehab start. Since he hasn’t performed well in his rehab outings this far, they want to see some consistency before activating him. The ulnar nerve pain doesn’t seem to be an issue.
“That didn’t seem to affect him at all because he was throwing the very next day, and he was able to pitch last night,” Mendoza said. “But I think it’s just day to day with him. We want to see it again — the type of performance that he had last night, and then we’ll have to make that decision.”
The club expects to recall right-hander Tobias Myers from Triple-A next week when they’re allowed to again, but he won’t be coming back to the big leagues as a starter. The Mets had hoped that they could stretch him out to start this season, but it’s proving to be too difficult time-wise. The long reliever is still only stretched out to about 40-45 pitches, far short of the 75-80 he would need to be conditioned to throw to face a lineup three times through.
A starter for Saturday’s game has yet to be announced because the Mets will need to assess the state of the bullpen following Friday’s series opener against the Atlanta Braves. As much as the Mets continue to say they trust left-hander Sean Manaea to start again, it’s clear they’d prefer to use an opener, as they’ve done once for Manaea and a few times for lefty David Peterson.
The start of the game was delayed due to a thunderstorm over Citi Field.
TRAINER’S ROOM
In an attempt to potentially shorten the duration of a minor league rehab assignment, the Mets brought minor league pitchers over from Brooklyn to Citi Field so injured shortstop Francisco Lindor could face live pitching this week. They also simulated defensive positioning for him to take ground balls.
However, he didn’t run the bases on contact. It was a controlled environment for Lindor to get game-like reps under the supervision of trainers while he works back from a left calf strain.
The plan is to continue to build up his volume of work in these simulated games before sending him out on a rehab assignment.
Lindor is expected to be back in the lineup later in the month.
“I think from the larger picture, our expectations are that he’s going to play games for us this month,” said president of baseball operations David Stearns. “I don’t know exactly when this month, but that means we’re getting closer, and we want to go as fast as possible, as smart as possible, and that’s a delicate line.”
Center fielder Luis Robert Jr. (lumbar spine disc herniation) still isn’t able to do much work with his back issues. First baseman Jorge Polanco (Achilles bursitis) is trying to get to a place where he can DH every day.
