Mets explain move to six-man rotation as they try to find right mix of veterans and rookies for October

CINCINNATI — This Mets starting rotation has sure provided a wild ride this season. It continues this weekend in Cincinnati as the Mets move closer to locking down a playoff spot while moving starting pitchers around in an attempt to find the correct formula before October. 

The latest? 

• Kodai Senga has accepted an assignment to the minors. 
• Brandon Sproat will make his MLB debut on Sunday. 
• The Mets are going to a six-man rotation for the time being. 

Back in July, it would’ve been lunacy to believe Senga would need a minor-league stint in 2025. He had a 1.47 ERA before a hamstring injury derailed him. He threw four scoreless innings in his return, but since then in eight starts he has a 6.56 ERA. 

“He was really, really good for us before he went down,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said Friday. “It’s just a combination of a lot of things that aren’t allowing him to execute pitches the way he wants to and get outs at this level. It’s been a grind, but physically he feels fine.” 

Given his contract, Senga had to accept the demotion and could have denied the Mets’ request. He did not. 

“First of all, so much respect for the player, but also so much respect for the person, for Kodai,” Mendoza said. “Not an easy decision and it was something where we needed his consent. It was presented to him and he was very open from the beginning. We presented the plan and our ideas and we wanted to get his feedback — gave him time to talk to his people to think through a lot of different scenarios. He came back and was all on board. He understands where he’s at physically and where we are as a team and where he’s at, performance-wise. We thought it was best for him to go down there.” 

Mendoza said the plan is for Senga to throw a few bullpen sessions before getting on the mound for an actual start in Triple-A, possibly with next weekend being the first start of a “couple.” 

The hope? 

“For him to work on his mechanics, we’ve gotta get him back in sync,” Mendoza said. “The lower body, the upper body, just everything. We’re giving him time to work on the mound, get a feel for the mechanics and we’ll put him on the mound.” 

In the meantime, the Mets are adding another rookie to the mix. It’ll be Sproat joining what is now a six-man Mets rotation along with fellow rookies Jonah Tong and Nolan McLean in addition to veterans Sean Manaea, David Peterson and Clay Holmes. 

Sproat, a second-round pick out of the University of Florida in 2023, went through several rough patches this season, but has mostly locked in since. In his last 11 starts at Triple-A, he’s 5-1 with a 2.44 ERA and 70 strikeouts in 59 innings. 

“This is another guy that had to fight and work really hard to get here,” Mendoza said. “It wasn’t easy for him the first half of the season, but when you look at these last 10, 11 starts, he’s been a different guy and that’s what we want to see.

“I’m pretty sure he was frustrated when he didn’t get the call, but now here he is, getting the opportunity. We don’t want to put too much pressure on him, like with Jonah and Nolan. It’s like, go out there and be yourself.” 

Ah yes, Jonah and Nolan. 

Nolan McLean has only been up with the Mets for four starts, but he’s 4-0 with a 1.37 ERA and there are a litany of stats that have only been achieved through four starts by McLean and Fernando Valenzuela. You know, of “Fernandomania” fame. 

Jonah Tong has only made one start heading into Saturday and he notched a victory. He gave up four runs, but only one was earned in his five innings of work and he struck out six without walking anyone. There’s promise, and we saw it. 

The three promotions of rookies didn’t look like they’d be necessary early in the season. Remember, I mentioned that wild ride? 

The Mets saw both Manaea and Frankie Montas get injured in spring training and entered the season with major question marks in the rotation. But they actually, emphatically, answered those questions in a positive. Through June 14, the Mets had one of the best rotations in baseball. They actually had the best rotation ERA at 2.82 with the Rangers sitting second at 3.03. 

Senga, Peterson and Holmes were good, as were Griffin Canning and Tylor Megill. Canning soon thereafter suffered a season-ending injury. Megill hasn’t pitched since then, either. The returns of Manaea and Montas were supposed to alleviate those losses, but things haven’t worked out too well since for the vets. 

• Peterson had two bad outings in late June, but still overall, the first-time All-Star was very good through Aug. 1. He had a 7.56 ERA in his last five starts before his start Friday evening in Great American Ball Park. He gave up four runs on seven hits in 5 ⅓ innings Friday. That’s hardly setting the world on fire, but the Mets will take it as this point. Plus, they won the game, 5-4, so he was good enough.
• Manaea, who was a rock for the Mets down the stretch last season and was good through four starts this year, has a 7.81 ERA in his last six outings. 
• Holmes isn’t bad, but it’s starting to show that he’s far exceeded his career-high workload. Remember, he was always a short reliever before this season. He has a 4.38 ERA in his last five starts, but he’s averaging less than five innings per outing and that just puts extra strain on the bullpen. 
• Montas was bad enough to be moved to the bullpen and is now done for the season due to injury. 

And, obviously, there’s the aforementioned demotion of Senga. 

With the veterans struggling, that’s where the rookies can make good on their opportunities. 

“Everybody knows the meaning of every game and we’re giving the ball to them,” Mendoza said of his rookie starters. 

It’s a nice fallback to have this level of talented arms ready to help down the stretch of a pennant race when the rotation desperately needs help. 

“I think you gotta give credit to a lot of people, the players and the player development guys,” said Mendoza. “There’s needs here at the big-league level and they’re putting themselves in position to where they’re in consideration and here they are.

“It’s special, but, again, we want to take it one outing at a time, making sure they don’t put too much pressure on themselves.”

Now, the regular season has just 21 games remaining and the Mets are looking to patch together a rotation good enough to help them win the World Series. What that looks like right now is anyone’s guess. They have time to figure out, though not much and, in the meantime, aren’t totally out of the woods in making sure to secure a playoff spot. 

That ride isn’t going to get less wild any time soon.