Kodai Senga threw live batting practice Monday afternoon, after which he said he’s on course to return very close to May 27, when he is eligible for removal from the 60-day injured list.
The Mets miss their most celebrated starting pitcher, but also have survived without him. Even so, it will be at least four weeks before Senga can throw a pitch for the team and there have been distress signals, in the form of short outings by starters — largely propagated by walks — that leave you to wonder if there’s enough here to get the Mets to Senga’s first start still in decent shape.
Jose Quintana and Luis Severino provided the Mets with gems the last two days, including Monday when the latter took a no-hitter into the eighth inning of the team’s 3-1 loss to the Cubs. But April overall has been a slog for the Mets’ starting pitchers, who owe a debt of gratitude to the bullpen.
We’re suggesting the rotation can use a burst of energy now, rather than waiting and hoping for the best. Christian Scott can potentially provide that energy.
Scott, the organization’s top pitching prospect, may have been ready to join this rotation when the season began. But team brass liked the established depth options and wanted to give the 24-year-old Scott at least a taste of what Triple-A had to offer before considering him for the major leagues.
Scott has started five games and struck out 36 batters in 25 ¹/₃ innings for Syracuse. He’s pitched to a 3.20 ERA, with his seven homers allowed accounting for most of it.
“I think Christian has done everything we could have hoped and expected,” president of baseball operations David Stearns said before the Mets opened a four-game series against the Cubs at Citi Field. “He continues to throw the ball very well. I think there’s this balancing act when you call up a prospect of when is the prospect ready and then when is there the major league need? Often those need to overlap and intersect and for some guys down there we’re probably just waiting for that intersection to occur.”
The Mets employed a six-man rotation for much of last season for Senga’s benefit and will likely go that route again for the Japanese right-hander. Team officials have also discussed the possibility of a six-man rotation during this stretch of games that shows the Mets with only one scheduled off day before May 23.
It could be the perfect storm for Scott, giving him a few starts to show what he’s about before the team potentially has to decide on where rehabbing pitchers Tylor Megill and David Peterson might fit. Both are ahead of Senga in their respective rehabs, but Peterson as a pitcher on the 60-day IL also can’t return before May 27.
The albatross in the rotation has been Adrian Houser and his 8.37 ERA over five starts. Promoting Scott, with others rehabbing behind him, would essentially put Houser on notice that his days in the rotation could be numbered. But at the rate teams are going through pitchers, it’s hardly a forgone conclusion that Houser will get squeezed out. Even so, he needs to show something soon.
Scott’s combination of poise and stuff — with a 98 mph fastball as his big weapon — has impressed team officials and teammates alike.
“I caught him only once in spring training and that is all I needed because the guy is gross,” Tomas Nido said. “He’s legit. I think the world of him and I think a lot of people do.”
Nido, while at Syracuse to open the season, didn’t catch any of Scott’s starts. But Nido watched enough of the right-hander to understand there is a special quality about him.
“He’ll bounce back from a bad inning or a bad pitch and that really stood out to me,” Nido said. “I actually told him that, too, and I think that is what everybody talks about: his ability to come back and be lights out for the rest of the game.”
The Mets have been waiting almost a decade for the next big thing from their farm system to bolster the rotation. Nobody will ask Scott to arrive and automatically become an ace, but a high-caliber arm that can energize the rotation at least until Senga returns — and ideally well beyond — makes plenty of sense.
Better now with the team playing at a respectable level than waiting until there’s desperation.
