The Mets have been hit hard by injuries, but not in their rotation.
Consider their starting pitcher options: the four currently in the group; David Peterson, who finds himself in a kind of rotation purgatory; Sean Manaea; Tobias Myers (if stretched out); a just-optioned Christian Scott; and Jonah Tong, whose swing-and-miss stuff has begun to tick up with Triple-A Syracuse.
A team with many issues — including maximizing what is a talented crew of starting pitchers — does not have a depth issue.
Which is one more reason Kodai Senga needs to figure himself out quickly.
The leash cannot be long for Senga, whose turn manager Carlos Mendoza would not guarantee after his last blow-up, although the club decided to give the right-hander another start and a few more days of rest.
That start will come in Game 2 of Sunday’s doubleheader against the Rockies at Citi Field, where Senga will be under as much pressure as can exist April 26.
The Mets, losers of 13 of 15, cannot continue to trust Senga if the duds keep mounting.
A season that began with hope — two solid outings with better velocity than last season — has quickly derailed, with Senga allowing 13 earned runs in 5 ²/₃ innings in his past two starts.
“We’ve seen flashes from Kodai. We haven’t seen the consistency,” president of baseball operations David Stearns said Friday. “We’re banking on the flashes and him continuing to get into the rhythm of the season, but we need some more consistency.”
The flashes have included those nine strikeouts in six two-run innings against the Cardinals in his season debut.
There are times, even within poor games, that he looks like the All-Star and potential ace he was in 2023. And there are reasons — really, there are — to be optimistic that he is still that pitcher.
Senga’s stuff itself continues to trend the right way.
His four-seamer averaged 95.7 mph when he pitched to a sub-3 ERA in ’23 and 94.7 mph last season.
Through four starts this year, he is registering 96.3 mph with the pitch.
He has pitched to an 8.83 ERA with an expected ERA of 3.92.
That 4.91 ocean of a difference ranked as the ninth highest in baseball entering play Saturday, when the Mets were rained out.
In 2023, opposing hitters averaged an 89.0 mph exit velocity against Senga.
This season, the ball has left their bats at 89.4 mph. Despite the numbers and especially the ERA, he is not exactly getting crushed.
More discouraging, though, is Senga’s recent command and seeming inability to pitch through adversity.
In 5 ²/₃ innings of disasters against the A’s and Cubs, Senga walked five.
With plenty of traffic — made worse by poor fielding behind him in Chicago — a pitcher accustomed to simply turning to his forkball and striking his way out of danger has folded.
Opposing hitters are hitting .333 with a 1.176 OPS against him with runners in scoring position.
Some of that, surely, is due to poor luck.
Some of that, surely, is on Senga.
“I’m not getting ahead, not getting first-pitch strikes, getting to hitter’s counts,” Senga said through an interpreter last week at Wrigley Field. “It’s obviously not a good sign, but at the same time I am not all that far off.”
The Mets, too, believe he can turn a corner — or else Manaea would have been saved for this turn or maybe Myers would have been stretched out or Tong would have been summoned.
There is a lot riding Sunday for the Mets and a pitcher who is making $15 million this season and $15 million next season.
“This is a guy that’s very meticulous about his work and his mechanics and things like that,” Mendoza said, “but he’s just got to go out there and do it.”