PHILADELPHIA — The Mets expressed their most confidence yet on Saturday that ace Kodai Senga could return before the end of the regular season.
“I’m pretty optimistic right now,” president of baseball operations David Stearns said. “He’s feeling good. I think if all continues to progress as it is right now, we should see him.”
After missing the first four months of the season with a shoulder injury, Senga returned in late July to make one start — in which he threw 5 1/3 dominant innings before suffering a calf strain. He’s gradually worked back from that injury, throwing his first live batting practice on Friday.
Senga is slated to throw another live BP early next week. If that goes well, the right-hander could make a rehab appearance for Triple-A Syracuse by the end of the week.
Senga is eligible to come off the 60-day injured list on Sept. 25 — the middle day of New York’s massive three-game series in Atlanta in the season’s final week. The Mets have sketched out a possible schedule in which Senga starts that game on a limited pitch count, with lefty Jose Quintana piggybacking after him. The club’s preference is to use Senga as an abbreviated starter rather than trying to finagle him into an unfamiliar long relief role.
(The Mets are lined up for Luis Severino, David Peterson and Sean Manaea to start those three games. If Senga is healthy enough, they’ll bump Peterson to the final weekend against Milwaukee.)
Carlos Mendoza hasn’t allowed himself to think too far down the line with Senga.
“Hopefully he’ll be a factor for us down the stretch,” the manager said. “We have to wait and see where he’s at physically.”
Senga was the Mets’ best pitcher as a rookie in 2023, posting a 2.98 ERA over 166 1/3 innings. His only start this year came against Atlanta, in which he allowed two runs on three hits with nine strikeouts over 5 1/3 innings.
Right-hander Paul Blackburn has been shut down because of leak of spinal fluid in his mid-back, Stearns said. Stearns said the injury sounds worse than it is, and that the club doesn’t have any long-term concerns about Blackburn’s health. Still, there’s no timeline for a potential return in 2024 for the starter.
Blackburn hasn’t pitched since late August, when he landed on the IL with a right hand contusion suffered on a line-drive comebacker.
Right-hander Christian Scott’s chances of making a major-league return this season are also diminishing. Scott is still working his way back from a sprain of the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow and is scheduled to throw a bullpen session on Sunday.
The Mets would like to place stress on Scott’s elbow before the end of the regular season, to get a better read on whether that elbow requires surgery or not. He’s just running up against the end of the season with little more than two weeks left.
If the injection of platelet-rich plasma that Dedniel Núñez received Friday doesn’t work, the reliever may require offseason surgery, Stearns said. However, that surgery would not be Tommy John surgery.
The Mets are optimistic that the PRP injection will work for Núñez, who is out for the rest of the season.
(Photo of Kodai Senga from July 26: Jim McIsaac / Getty Images)
