Mets Notebook: Buck Showalter considering Kodai Senga on regular rest for the first time
The Mets have insisted that Kodai Senga needs extra rest, despite the right-hander’s own insistence that he can handle a four or five-day workweek like every other starting pitcher in the Major Leagues.
However, the Mets are now considering starting him on four days of rest Sunday against the Toronto Blue Jays at home. There are contingency plans in place if he doesn’t pass some physical tests that the training staff is having him go through, but the Mets have done away with their six-man rotation and they’re seeing the results they want to see from Senga to have him on a more normal schedule.
“We’ll know Friday,” manager Buck Showalter said Thursday before the Mets played a matinee finale against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citi Field. “We’ll do some testing of things that they can do to see how he’s feeling.”
Senga has said that it’s nice of the Mets to consider him enough to create a work plan similar to the one he was on in Japan, but he would like to acclimate to a more typical MLB schedule. The Mets have given him seven days off at times and he has said that while he used the time to his benefit, he found it difficult to stay engaged with so many days off.
However, this time it might be more beneficial to have him pitch in New York instead of Atlanta.
Should the Mets give him the extra start he has been accustomed to, it would line him up to pitch the first game of a crucial three-game series in Atlanta against the Braves. But Senga has been significantly better at home than on the road this season. He’s 3-1 with a 1.20 ERA at Citi Field and has held hitters to just a .136 average in Queens. Outside of flushing, the rookie right-hander is 2-2 with 6.12 ERA.
Those are drastic splits that he has attributed to some of the long road trips that MLB teams have to take. The travel in Japan featured shorter plane rides and more frequent days off, especially in between three-game series. The Mets have played a heavy road schedule in the first half, one of the heaviest in the league, and it will lighten up in the second half of the season, but it’s been one of the challenges that Senga has to deal with in his first season in North America.
“Pitching on five days rest has already been a little different for him,” Showalter said. “He has already made a lot of adjustments. That’s what’s been remarkable for me. I think sometimes we underestimate how many different things are going on in his pitching life, so it would not surprise me if he can make that adjustment. But right now, it’s more of a physical adjustment than it is a mental or emotional thing.”
The Mets are going to need Senga to pitch in Atlanta at some point, but it might be better for all involved to wait a little longer and give him one more start at Citi Field before embarking on another six-game road trip.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Left-hander Jose Quintana is off and running with his rehab from his spring bone graft surgery.
He’s about to graduate from throwing off a mound in the bullpen to throwing against hitters. He’ll throw live batting practice twice next week, once on Monday and once on Friday. If all goes well, he’ll throw a complete inning on June 13.
