At the start of his fourth season with the Mets, right-handed pitcher Kodai Senga was asked a straightforward question after Wednesday's workout in Port St. Lucie: Any goals coming into spring training?
After a pause, Senga said, "To not get injured.”
His face formed a wry, quarter-smile acknowledging that the numerous injuries have plagued his time in the big leagues just as much as his "ghost fork" has been to opposition hitters.
"These past two years have been frustrating and tough mentally. At some points, maybe I started to lose confidence,” said Senga, speaking through an interpreter, when asked about his confidence level. “In this world, it's either you do it, or you don't. And I'm here to do it. That's all there is."
After a stellar rookie season saw him pitch to a 2.98 ERA over 166.1 innings, injuries curtailed the next two campaigns, to the tune of 118.2 innings and 23 starts. And after a phenomenal start to 2025, a calf injury derailed his year so much that he finished the season at Triple-A Syracuse after several ineffectual starts.
“Last year with the injuries, it really put me off balance,” the 33-year-old said. “Had to end the year that way, but through rehab this offseason, I feel really good, and I’m really happy with where I’m at.”
Senga added that his rehab this offseason has been with the clear goal of pitching a full season without injuries, which led to reevaluating himself and studying his body to figure out why his performance dipped late last season.
Asked if he felt he needed to earn the organization’s trust back after the last two seasons of play, Senga said he was focused on looking inward at first.
“Before showing the organization anything, I think I need to prove it to myself that I can go out there and pitch a full season,” he said. “And once I can prove it to myself, I think then comes the third party, how everyone else sees me. So, first I need to be out there for myself.”
A healthy Senga pitching to his full capabilities would be a huge boost to the Mets’ rotation, as the club is coming off a year in which the team struggled to find consistency and stability from the starting pitchers. And his importance to the team reaching its full potential isn’t lost on Senga, even if his job in that rotation isn’t assured.
“To be in this locker room, I think it’s obvious and clear that I have a spot to get and be out there and perform. And as long as I’m given this opportunity, I’m gonna give it my all for this organization,” he said.
Manager Carlos Mendoza said later on Wednesday that his expectations for the righty all come down to availability.
"He needs to be healthy," Mendoza said. "When he's healthy, we know the type of pitcher he can be. People saw it here in 2023; we saw it for the first two-and-a-half months last year, how effective he was. And then he got hurt, and he wasn't able to be himself again.
"My biggest expectation here is, we need this guy healthy. If he's healthy, he's gonna help us."
Of course, amid a big offseason of change for the Mets, Senga was the subject of trade whispers. And he reportedly asked Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns not to trade him this offseason.
“At the end of the day, I control only what I can control,” Senga said when asked what prompted this request. “And at that point, I hadn’t gotten traded yet, so I just wanted to do whatever I can, in that moment, and be back out there for the Mets and play hard.”