Kodai Senga's steep drop-off in the last few months of the 2025 season is one of the biggest stories for the New York Mets. Considered as one of the best starters in the league before the All-Star break, the Japanese right-hander fell off a cliff in the second half of the year. It led to the Mets sending Senga down to the minor leagues to get himself right and heal from a hamstring injury he sustained.
Unfortunately, Senga struggled in the minors as well. He had a solid first game, striking out eight in six innings and surrendering one run. However, the Mets pitcher's final game was a mess, getting pulled after 3.2 innings when he gave up four runs on six hits.
Senga had a live BP session to presumably get him ready for a return to the Mets in the playoffs. However, based on manager Carlos Mendoza's review of Senga's performance, we might not see Senga return to the mound anytime soon.
“It's just live BP,” Mendoza said, per Ben Krimmel of Yahoo! Sports. “But he didn't feel like the velo was there, and that's what we saw. So he's going to continue to throw, he's staying down there, he's gonna continue to keep throwing there.”
Mendoza said that Senga's fastball was at around 93 mph, a few ticks lower than his season average of 94.7. The Mets manager also noted that the hot weather could have impacted Senga's performance, but he was noncommittal on whether the pitcher returns for their final series against Miami.
“We still gotta wait and see, he's still gonna wait in Florida after the live BP yesterday, and then we'll see what we got.”
Should Senga not make an appearance in the next four games, his third season will end on a disappointing note. In his eight starts after the All-Star break, the Mets pitcher logged 35.2 innings. In that timespan, Senga held an atrocious 6.56 ERA. It was an uncharacteristic performance from the Japanese pitcher, who sported a 1.47 ERA in his first 13 starts.
