Mets' Kodai Senga feels 'regretful' but 'not overly surprised' about health
Kodai Senga of the Mets throws on the field during a workout at Citi Field on March 27. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Kodai Senga feels “regretful” about being unable to pitch for an indefinite period and intends to be extra deliberate with his progress as he comes out of this soft reset of his rehabilitation, he said during a series of ambiguous comments Monday afternoon.
For now, Senga remains unable to even throw a baseball because of nerve inflammation in his right triceps, a setback in his recovery from his original right shoulder strain.
Manager Carlos Mendoza said the Mets plan for him to try playing catch again Wednesday but added that it is “hard to put a timeline” on his eventual return because of the unpredictable nature of the righthander’s health in recent months.
Pitching before the mid-July All-Star break appears to be a long shot for Senga.
“It’s obviously not ideal. A lot of regretful feelings,” he said through an interpreter before the Mets’ game against the Dodgers was postponed because of rain. “But I just want to get back out there. I’m here at the stadium, I see all the guys fighting. And it really makes me want to have the urge to go back out there and pitch for the team.”
What specifically does he regret?
“The biggest part is that, because I think that I understand my body well, and I think things could’ve gone better,” he said. “I’m not overly surprised [about] where I am currently. I could’ve fixed some things.”
What does he mean by that? Senga, who consistently has seemed thoughtful and careful with his words in his year-plus with the Mets, paused for 23 seconds before answering.
“The point is that in order to get back to 100%, you have to hit each benchmark,” he said. “You have to be at 100% at each benchmark to get to the ultimate 100%. That’s what I mean by that.
“Moving forward, I have to look forward and bang out each thing that I need to do in order to move on to the next step and ultimately get back on the mound.”
The Mets have come to largely defer to Senga on what he does when. Mendoza said there haven’t been any disagreements between the player and the team during the more than three months in which he has attempted to get back on the mound.
Asked if Senga’s rehab process was rushed at any point, Mendoza said no, citing the Mets’ considerable carefulness from the start, including adding an extra two weeks to his initial spring training shutdown period.
“We laid out a plan when he first went down in spring training. Everybody was on board,” Mendoza said. “We listened to some of his suggestions and then obviously when he started throwing again and started feeling good, then it was mechanics, then triceps. But has there been disagreement? Not really.
“Look, we got a pretty frustrated player here that he’s not able to contribute . . . Because he wants to be out there so bad and right now he’s not capable of doing [that], it’s very, very frustrating for him and for a lot of people.”
Senga entered the year as the Mets’ top starter. Without him, the rotation collectively has been middling at best. It ranks 24th in the majors with a 4.48 ERA, 23rd with a 1.33 WHIP and 17th with 5.3 innings per start.
Senga doesn’t know when he’ll be back, either. It’ll depend on “how my body feels,” he said.
The next test of that is resuming throwing, a wild card given recent events.
“It’s really taken one step at a time, so it’s hard to have a goal or have a set date,” Senga said. “Because I haven’t done anything, it’s hard to tell how it feels. But what’s for sure is I’m itching to come back. I really do want to come back. That’s what I’m striving for. But at the same time, I can’t rush myself.”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
