The Nippon Professional Baseball star is now stateside and introduced himself to New York and Mets fans on Monday morning.

Senga began with a message he prepared in English.

“Hi, I’m Kodai Senga of the New York Mets. I’m very excited and happy to be in the Big Apple and join such a great team. Let’s go Mets.”

Senga, 29, has spent his entire career in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball as a member of the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks and now turns stateside as a member of the Mets.

Senga has played 10 years for the Hawks. In his time, the right-hander has an 87-44 record, 2.59 ERA, 22 holds, one save, and 1,252 strikeouts. He was a three-time NPB All-Star and five-time Japan Series champion.

Senga is the latest Japanese player to come to MLB. He said he received advice from Yu Darvish about the league and it gave him more excitement to come over.

Another added bit of excitement for Senga is the ability to pitch with Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer. Two pitchers Senga watched before his starts in Japan and can’t wait to compete with.

Senga isn’t just ready to pitch with the big boys he’s ready to face them. The player he wants to face the most?

“The Philadelphia Phillies,” Senga said.

Safe to say he’s already great at being a Met.

Senga is coming off the best year of his career. He went 11-6 in 22 games pitched with a 1.94 ERA as a starter and 156 K’s in 144 innings pitched.

The six-foot-zero-inch pitcher throws a fastball averaging 95-96 that tops out at 100 mph, a forkball, a cutter, and a slider. His forkball has been nicknamed the “ghost fork(ball) in Japan.”

How did he develop it?

“Practice,” he said.

Senga has already met the manager too. Although he was a little detected by Buck Showalter’s stern resting face.

“At first I thought he had a really intimidating face, but after that and getting to talk to him and he was cracking jokes, I realized how comfortable I can be around someone like that.”

Senga will round out the Mets rotation that will feature Verlander, Scherzer, Jose Quintana, and Carlos Carrasco.

“He’s just a really complete pitcher,” Billy Eppler said. “Also his resiliency. He scratched and clawed his way to really high levels.”

This was just Senga’s introduction. He’s now ready to live up to the hype and his contract.

The post Kodai Senga Excited To Join Mets appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

Lon Horwedel-USA TODAY Sports

Aaron Loup had one of the best reliever seasons in franchise history for the New York Mets in 2021 after signing a one-year deal to be their LOOGY. Loup’s sparkling 0.95 ERA in 2021 for the Mets earned him a two-year, $17 million deal with the Los Angeles Angels during the offseason. While Loup struggled in his first year with the Angels, the Mets also found it difficult to find a dependable lefty reliever for the 2022 season.

The Mets brought back veteran lefty Chasen Shreve, traded Miguel Castro to the Yankees for Joely Rodriguez, and signed a couple of minor league depth pieces in Rob Zastryzny and Mike Montgomery. Shreve, after having success with the Mets in 2020, started the season fine with only two earned runs allowed in April. It was all downhill from there and the lefty was released in early July. Montgomery struggled in the minors and Zastryzny allowed one run in his lone outing as a Met before being designated for assignment.

That left everything to Rodríguez –a pitcher acquired in an April trade that had most folks scratching their head. Rodríguez’s performance in April was a good representation of his entire season with the Mets as he posted a 5.87 ERA despite holding opponents to a .120 average. Joely walked five in that span, and that turned out to be his issue most of the season with 26 in only 50 1/3 innings.

A strong September 2.25 ERA (only two walks) gave Rodríguez a final 4.47 ERA with the Mets. However, when Rodríguez did allow hitters to make contact, it was among the weakest in baseball with his average exit velocity in the 96th percentile and barrel percentages in the 95th percentile. His expected ERA for the season was a solid 3.62 and his FIP was an even better 3.23.

Rodríguez is one of the Mets’ many free agents this offseason putting them in a spot where they were last offseason looking for a left-hander reliever to stabilize the bullpen.

One of the arms they talked to last offseason, Andrew Chafin, intends to decline his player option to become a free agent according to Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press. The Mets liked the pitching skills of Chafin last year but balked at signing the veteran because he was unvaccinated and there was still a ban in New York at the time that would’ve meant he couldn’t pitch in home games.

Chafin, 32, had his second straight good season with a 2.84 ERA, 3.06 FIP, and struck out 67 compared to only 19 walks in 57 1/3 innings for the Tigers in 2022. The impressive 2022 season comes on the heels of the 2021 one in which he posted an even better 1.83 ERA in 68 2/3 innings between the A’s and Cubs.

The addition of Chafin certainly bolsters a weak left-handed reliever market that includes Zack Britton, Aroldis Chapman, Sean Doolittle, Brad Hand, Matt Moore,  Taylor Rogers, Matt Strahm, and Justin Wilson.

With Drew Smith as the only Mets reliever under contract for the 2023 season that pitched significant innings for New York this year, GM Billy Eppler will have his hands full in revamping a bullpen that is desperate for an arm that can get lefty hitters out.

The post Andrew Chafin Will Join Lefty FA Reliever Market appeared first on Metsmerized Online.