WASHINGTON — Kodai Senga’s rehab is moving to the game phase.
The Mets right-hander is scheduled to pitch Friday for Single-A St. Lucie, his first minor league rehab appearance since the team placed him on the injured list April 27 with lumbar spine inflammation.
Senga, according to manager Carlos Mendoza, will throw 50-60 pitches, a maximum of four innings. It’s still too early, Mendoza said, to know if Senga will need the full 30-day rehab window.
It’s been a rough start to the season for Senga, who owns a 9.00 ERA in five starts. Senga’s lumbar inflammation was diagnosed after a third straight subpar outing in April.
He is one of two pitchers who began the season in the Mets rotation now on the IL (Clay Holmes, with a fractured right fibula, is the other).
Another starting pitcher, Sean Manaea, has been relegated to mop-up duty in the bullpen.
The Mets have received mixed results from reinforcements from Syracuse. Christian Scott has pitched to a 4.12 ERA in five starts.
Zach Thornton debuted for the team on Wednesday and allowed four earned runs over 4 ¹/₃ innings.
Mark Vientos made a highlight-reel play at first base with a diving stop in the fifth inning that retired CJ Abrams for the final out and prevented the tying run from scoring in the Mets’ 2-1 victory over the Nationals.
“You have to give him a lot of credit because he continues to work every day with the coaching staff and he’s gotten so much better,” Mendoza said. “He’s comfortable. That wasn’t an easy play. It was a bullet and then he got a good first step on it. Overall, the awareness on bunt plays, there’s a lot that he is doing right.”
A.J. Minter’s potential last rehab appearance is scheduled for Saturday with Syracuse.
The lefty reliever, who had hip discomfort after rehabbing from lat surgery, hasn’t pitched for the Mets since April 2025.
Tobias Myers will start Friday’s game in Miami, the team announced.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
