The Mets appear to have added another dominant piece to what may be the best rotation in Major League Baseball, reaching a $75 million, five-year deal with Japanese right-hander Kodai Senga, a source told MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand on Friday. Saturday night. The club has not confirmed the news.
Senga, who turns 30 in January, spent 11 seasons in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball organization, all with the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks. In total, the right-hander posted a 2.59 ERA and 1.12 WHIP in 1,089 innings, striking out 28% of the hitters he faced but also walking 9%. In 2022, he had a 1.89 ERA and a 1.04 WHIP in 148 innings with the Hawks.
During the semifinals of the 2017 World Baseball Classic, Senga pitched two innings of relief against Team USA, striking out five – Eric Hosmer, Andrew McCutchen, Buster Posey, Giancarlo Stanton and Christian Yelich all went down on strikeouts against the then-American. 24 years.
The 6-foot, 178-pound Senga, who possesses a 101 mph fastball and biting splitter, filed for international free agency Oct. 31, and was recently declared an international free agent. According to FanGraphs, Senga’s fastball has an “explosive” action, but his two breaking pitches — a cutter and a slider — aren’t as effective as the fastball and splitter, particularly when it comes to losing bats.
Senga was not subject to the NPB’s posting process because he accrued enough service time in the league to apply for international free agency. As a result, there is no “release fee” to pay to his NPB team to sign him to a major league contract.
Senga’s addition would further bolster the rotation for the Mets, who earlier this week added reigning AL Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander to partner Max Scherzer. The Mets also signed veteran left-hander Jose Quintana and closed deals with reliever David Robertson and outfielder Brandon Nimmo.
We would love to thank the author of this short article for this awesome content
Mets and Senga agree to a 5-year, $75 million deal (source)