☀️ Good Morning:
It will be fascinating to look back at the pitchers who made news on Monday to see which ones became difference makers this season.
We started the day learning the dream of a reunion with Jose Quintana is dead (sorry Blake). Mets fans’ second most coveted free-agent veteran named Jose signed a very team-friendly deal with the Brewers.
However, disappointment on that news started to dissipate by nightfall when Kodai Senga made his 2025 spring debut, showing off a new pitch and looking pretty good. Excitement built from there as David Peterson looked his 2024 reliable self. And two sleepers, Max Kranick and Tyler Zuber, continued to flash impressive stuff.
We have a lot to unpack between those pitching performances from last night, plus a fun comp for tonight’s starter. It’s a jam-packed newsletter.
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Kodai Senga runs on a Cable Guy schedule — there seems to be more of a general window than a specific timeline for when and how often he will pitch.
Originally slated to throw one inning (~15 pitches) on Monday before getting the rest of his work in from the bullpen, Senga ended up throwing 31 pitches over two innings, tossing 12 more after he left the game from the back mound.
His 43 pitches in total puts him on track to reach 70–80 by Opening Day. The right-hander, who started only one regular season game last season, allowed two hits while striking out two in his spring debut.
⚾️ NEW PITCH: Most interesting was the debut of a new pitch. Senga unleashed a sinker, a Stearns/Hefner favorite, which he hopes helps him against right-handed hitters. Senga threw the pitch three times on Monday (all to right-handed hitters), landing two outside of the strike zone, while getting Otto Lopez to foul one away.
The right-hander, best known for his ghost fork, has always relied on a four-seam/cutter combination against both righties and lefties. The Mets believe a heavier fastball will help him induce more ground balls and provide him with an added offset to righties.
🗣️ “That’s a pitch that you can get ground balls … running into righties,” manager Carlos Mendoza said of Senga’s sinker, via MLB. “It gets hitters off his splitter, his slider, if he’s got something going in to righties. If that’s a pitch that he can really use when he needs to, it’s a dangerous pitch. He can manipulate the baseball in a lot of different ways.”
His new sinker reached only 90 mph on the gun in his first outing, but he expects the velocity to tick up as he gets a better feel for it and ramps up closer to Opening Day.
🔥 David Peterson
Senga wasn’t the only story on Monday, how about the often-overlooked David Peterson?! As I mentioned on our most recent podcast, it feels like Peterson gets the least attention in the rotation, but the success of the starting group may in large part rest on whether we see the 2023 version of Peterson or the version we were treated to last year.
By following the team recipe of leaning into his sinker, Peterson did a much better job keeping the ball in the ballpark last season and continued to record outs via ground balls. While his strikeout rate declined, he demonstrated better command and improved his ERA from 5.03 in 2023 to 2.90 in 2024.
Last night, we saw a swing-and-miss version of Peterson.
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