The New York Mets have continued to absolutely unload their pockets this offseason.
The Mets reportedly added yet another interest-garnering pitching target and signed Japanese right-hander Kodai Senga to a five-year, $75 million contract which is still pending a physical, according to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal. Senga’s contract also includes no-trade protection and an opt-out clause after the 2025 season.
Senga, who will turn 30 in January, will make his Major League Baseball debut campaign after previously spending 11 seasons with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of Nippon Professional Baseball. During his time with the Hawks, Senga pitched to an impressive 2.59 ERA with a 28.22% strikeout rate and a 9.33% walk rate through 1,089 innings tossed.
In 2022, Senga pitched 148 innings and posted a 1.89 ERA and 1.04 WHIP alongside 159 strikeouts.
Pitching in the 2017 World Baseball Classic for team Japan, Senga delivered a tremendous performance and struck out five big league batters — Eric Hosmer, Andrew McCutchen, Buster Posey, Giancarlo Stanton and Christian Yelich — through two innings of relief.
The Mets, within the last 48 hours, have made three prominent additions to their roster after falling short (in three games) in the National League wild-card series against the San Diego Padres last season.
Along with Senga, the Mets have already allocated multi-year agreements to Edwin Díaz ($102 million), Justin Verlander ($86.66 million), José Quintana ($26 million) and Brandon Nimmo ($162 million).