PHILADELPHIA — Don’t get too excited, but the Mets are getting positive reports back on ace Kodai Senga. So positive that manager Carlos Mendoza said he gets the sense that Senga is on track to pitch before the regular season ends.
“I think so, yeah,” Mendoza said Friday at Citizens Bank Park. “I haven’t been around because we’ve been on the road, but the reports that we’re getting is that, yeah, that’s the feeling that we’ve got is that hopefully, we’ll get him here at some point before the year is over.”
While the thought of Senga on the mound for a game with a playoff berth on the line might sound enticing, the Mets aren’t ready to definitively say he will return. The team will figure out how to use him and how to manage his innings load if and when it actually becomes a reality.
However, he did take a promising step Friday in New York while the team prepped for a weekend rivalry series in Philadelphia. Senga threw to hitters and will do so again Monday or Tuesday at Citi Field.
The Mets seem to be mulling the possibility of using Senga as a reliever to ease him back into competition, or possibly using him in a piggyback start. The right-hander is extremely particular the 31-year-old is about his routines, so it’s something the team will need to talk to him about first.
But again, Mendoza reiterated that they have to get him back healthy first before they can make concrete plans. The same goes for right-hander Christian Scott, who is throwing bullpens and will throw one Sunday.
“Look, when he’s healthy, man, that was electric when we saw him pitch that game against the Braves,” Mendoza said. “But it’s hard for me to sit here and say if he’s healthy again, or where do we see him. I’ve got to wait and see before we can have this type of conversation. I just like where he’s at physically and hopefully he’s a factor for us down the stretch.”
Right-handed reliever Dedniel Nuñez, however, will not be a factor for the Mets this month. He has a flexor injury of some sort, the details of which Mendoza isn’t exactly sure of. Nuñez, who was enjoying a stellar rookie season as a 28-year-old, had a PRP injection Friday with the hope of avoiding surgery.
“He’s disappointed,” Mendoza said. “Big Blow, but guys will continue to step up.”
Initially, the Mets thought he would only need two weeks to recover and for the inflammation to subside. The team did not immediately send him for updated imaging after he complained of forearm soreness in San Diego late last month, but when he failed to recover properly they sent him for another MRI.
Nuñez came off the IL Aug. 24 and pitched only once before the Mets had to place him on it again.
Right-hander Paul Blackburn may not pitch again this month either. Blackburn is in New York getting tests run on his lower back but will not pitch again for at least 7-10 days, according to Mendoza.
