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Kodai Senga signed with the New York Mets to a five-year, $75 million contract this past week. He has the flexibility to opt out after the 2025 season if he wishes.
As Senga, who will be 30 in January, was introduced to the media and it was clear how much he wanted to win over having a payday.
What helps about this signing? He doesn't need to be an ace or the top pitcher in the Mets rotation.
The Mets already have Max Scherzer and newly signed Justin Verlander to take the top two rotation spots while Senga could be the No. 3 pitcher.
Last year, the Mets looked like they would dominate the NL Division, yet found a way to come up short and couldn't hold off the red hot Atlanta Braves in the final games. New York was eventually eliminated by the San Diego Padres in the wild card round for what was an embarrassing collapse.
Jacob deGrom signed with the Texas Rangers while Chris Bassitt joined the Toronto Blue Jays in free agency, so the Mets brought in some different faces to reload. New York also lost Taijuan Walker to the Philadelphia Phillies.
Besides Verlander and Senga, the Mets also signed Jose Quintana which should solidify the rotation. They could easily pitch David Peterson or Carlos Carrasco as the No. 5 or even No. 6 starters as well for the back end.
There are other depth options including Elieser Hernandez, who was acquired by trade from the Miami Marlins and even Joey Lucchesi, who is returning from Tommy John surgery.
An argument can be made their rotation could be even better than what it produced in 2022. They could ease Senga into the rotation with six men to start until he's used to pitching every four days.
What has helped for the Mets is the change in ownership from having the controversial Wilpon family to now Steven A. Cohen.
Since Cohen purchased the team, they've been willing and spend and invest in players, including having to eat the remainder of Robinson Cano's contract. Cohen himself has been active on social media as if he were just a rabid fan wanting to win. Money hasn't been a problem as he's provided plenty of resources.
They've signed several free agents last year including Mark Canha, the aforementioned Scherzer and Starling Marte while they retained OF Brandon Nimmo this year to an eight-year contract.
Notably, Billy Eppler became the GM in 2021, the same person who helped orchestrate the signing of Shohei Ohtani to the Los Angeles Angels. Difference with Eppler today is how he doesn't have a hands-on owner watching over his back on every move and has more freedom under Cohen.
In the opening press conference, Eppler rightfully introduced Senga mentioning not only his obvious championships and easy accomplishments, but the fact that he was an ikusei (developmental player) before he even made it to the ichi-gun of the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks.
"He had to scratch and claw his way to the NPB," Eppler said of Senga. "He's constantly working to improve. He fought his way to become a star. That's a pretty good sign of resiliency. Frankly, I think it's one that Mets fans in the community would really identify with and feel good about."
Senga had to work his way up the ladder starting at the bottom and being a reliever before they made him a starting pitcher in 2016.
The spotlight of New York shouldn't be a problem for Senga since he's been an ace in the past. If we're looking at concerns, it's his walk rate hovering around 9% while giving up home runs at a consistent rate.
Durability was also a concern with recent shoulder and ankle injuries, but when healthy, Senga's fastball and "ghost" fork ball (splitter) should be effective in MLB. The former can go as fast as 102 mph. It wouldn't hurt if he could improve his slider for an extra pitch into his arsenal.
Competition will be fierce as the Philadelphia Phillies were in the World Series last season while the aforementioned Braves won the division on the final week. Senga is already embracing his new challenge saying he looks forward to facing the Phillies lineup.
The Mets are contenders on paper, yet they still haven't shown they can finish a full season like 2015 under this current regime. Every game counts.
Senga is already looking forward to being with teammates Scherzer and Verlander while he picked up the advice from Yu Darvish to learn more English.
It's been a long time coming for Senga as he expressed desire to be in MLB as early as 2017, when he was at the World Baseball Classic playing for Samurai Japan. The Hawks stayed consistent with their policies in posting players, which is never doing it at all, forcing Senga to wait for international free agent rights.
The best thing about this whole process was not having any deadline and being allowed to visit cities, teams and not rush the process like the posting system would have done. It was a carefully calculated decision to want to win now, not about the money at all.
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