Kodai Senga Stellar in Second Spring Outing

Kodai Senga is in a weird spot.

He’s not some unproven rookie, but there are uncertainties surrounding his reliability after the way the second half of last year went. If he can return to the ways of 2023 and the first half of 2025, he could be a real X-factor for this team. Especially in turning around last year’s rotation struggles.

So, any progress is good progress.

It’s just spring training — his second outing, no less. But Senga showed exactly the kind of signs one would hope to see in the early going.

He turned in three outstanding innings against the Miami Marlins on Friday, in an eventual 1-0 loss.

Senga retired all nine batters he faced. He struck out five of them.

He induced eight whiffs on the evening. Four of his strikeouts ended with a swinging strike; the one that didn’t was an ABS-overturned curveball on the outer edge. The curve registered at 67.8 mph.

That came in stark contrast to his fastball, which averaged 96.5 mph and topped out at 98.6. Last year, Senga averaged 94.7 mph with his fastball.

He threw his forkball only sparingly on Thursday. But, of the two that the Marlins swung at, both were whiffs.

Senga worked in eight sliders and got one whiff on it in four pitches. In his 38-pitch outing, he managed to register seven pitch types.

Control was not an issue at all, with 28 pitches (73.7% ) going for strikes.

Senga’s velocity and comfort with his arsenal are the biggest green flags to take away from the outing. The focus now becomes his continued progress and consistency heading into the season. An eye will also need to kept on if, or how gradually, Senga increases his forkball usage — and if he still has a good feel for it.

The forkball is a necessary pitch for Senga. When it’s working, it’s what jolts him from good to great.

Senga’s struggles in the second half last year might have overlooked just how good he had been up to that point. Of course, it didn’t help that he missed the vast majority of 2024. And he’s already 33 years old, so it’s not like there’s a ton of time left on his clock the way there might be with, say, an early-20s Jonah Tong. In a press conference, David Stearns even expressed some urgency and criticism of Senga — saying that it would be “foolish” to pencil him in for 30 starts.

But the Mets need outings from Senga like the one they got Friday. A few more like that, and he might ease some people’s justified worries about where he stands on this team heading into 2026.

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