As the Mets open their season Friday against the Milwaukee Brewers, they do so without their ace, Kodai Senga, who remains sidelined with a shoulder injury he sustained early in spring training.
The Mets decided to shut down the 31-year-old for several weeks, but Senga was back to throwing on Wednesday during the Mets’ workout at Citi Field – an encouraging sign that he is making progress.
Yet, Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns still would not commit to a timeline for Senga’s return prior to Opening Day.
“I think we probably need to get a little bit farther into his throwing program before we’re able to provide a concrete timeframe,” Stearns told reporters. “[He’s] making good progress but probably another week or two before we can map out a real throwing program and get a sense of when he can be back on a major-league mound.”
Sean Reid-Foley dealing with shoulder impingement
Stearns also provided more context behind the shoulder injury that landed Sean Reid-Foley onto the injured list to start the season, noting that the MRI showed a shoulder impingement.
“It’s not something that we think is something we think is overly serious,” Stearns said. “But clearly it was serious enough for he and our medical staff felt he couldn’t pitch right now and I’m certainly glad he said something after the workout instead of trying to gut through it to start the season.”
Mets manager Carlos Mendoza added a similar sentiment, too.
“I’m glad he said something,” Mendoza told reporters. “Because we talked to him in the morning before the workout and we’ve been checking in with him every day since he reported late in camp with the bicep (injury) and we shut him down. When we put him in the game he continued to say he was OK and feeling fine, but it was tentative. I think he just wasn’t comfortable just letting it loose. …I’m glad he came in after the workout and said something… we don’t anticipate this to be too long.”
Mendoza added Reid-Foley felt good enough to play catch on Thursday and believes it’ll be more of a confidence-type deal before he is back on the mound.