Before the Mets opened this weekend's three-game series Friday at the Philadelphia Phillies, manager Carlos Mendoza shared injury updates on right-handed pitchers Kodai Senga, Paul Blackburn and Christian Scott.
Kodai Senga
Senga (left calf strain) is "progressing well," Mendoza said.
"But I don't want to get too far ahead," Mendoza said. "We've just got to stay the course here. He threw another bullpen with hitters standing up today.
"The next step will be the same at Citi Field, whether it's Monday or Tuesday, where he'll throw and he'll face hitters.
"But I don't want to get too far ahead. But he continues to progress well, and we'll see what we've got after that."
SNY's Andy Martino reported Thursday that Senga is still in play for a return to the Mets for the Sept. 24-26 series at the Atlanta Braves.
"I'm going to go back to spring training and when you're envisioning a six-man rotation and he goes down and when we potentially have him back and then we get him back and he goes down right away," Mendoza said.
"So I think, look, when he's healthy -- man, that was electric when we saw him pitch that (July 26) game against the Braves. But it's hard for me to sit here and say, 'Man, if he's healthy again,' or, 'Where do we see him?'
"I've got to wait and see before we can have this type of conversation. I just like where he's at physically and, hopefully, he's a factor for us down the stretch."
At the same time, Mendoza said, he believes that Senga is preparing accordingly.
"I think so," Mendoza said when asked if he gets that sense that Senga thinks he'll be back this year. "I haven't been around ... but the reports that I'm getting, that we're getting is that, yeah, that's the feeling that we've got that -- hopefully, we'll get him here at some point before the year's over."
Senga began the season on the injured list with a right shoulder capsule strain and only pitched the July 26 game against the Braves, allowing two runs on two hits (one homer) while striking out nine, walking one and hitting another in 5.1 IP before he strained his left calf.
"I think we've got to wait and see how we're going to get there," Mendoza said of Senga's potential role, whether as a starter or in the bullpen. "The buildup -- how many pitches is he going to be able to give us on an outing, even though it's a short outing, whatever we want to call it.
"Or is it too much to ask him to come out of the bullpen? His routine -- there's a lot here. We just have to wait and see where he's at physically before we make a decision."
