Mets starter Kodai Senga finished second in National League Rookie of the Year balloting, behind outfielder Corbin Carroll of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
After playing in Japan for 11 seasons with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, Senga’s transition to the majors in 2023 was a total success. In 29 starts, the right-hander had a 2.98 ERA and 1.22 WHIP to go along with 202 strikeouts in 166.1 innings pitched. He was the first Mets rookie since Dwight Gooden to strike out 200 or more batters in a season.
More than half of those strikeouts came on Senga’s signature pitch, the ghost forkball, that he unveiled to MLB hitters this season.
According to whiff rate, his ghost fork was the toughest pitch to hit as hitters swung and missed an MLB-leading 59.5 percent on it this past season. He also held opponents to a .110 batting average on the pitch.
It was the combination of his ghost fork and fastball that topped out at 98-99 mph that made New York sign Senga to a five-year, $75 million contract last offseason. And after an adjustment period early in the year, that deal is looking like a bargain.
Senga began the season with some control issues and had a walk rate of 5.1 per nine in his first three months in the big leagues. Once he settled into a groove, his walk-rate dipped (3.3 BB/9 over the final three months) and he took off from there.
Some of the most memorable moments in the 30-year-old’s first season with the Mets were his MLB debut against the Miami Marlins on April 2, when he allowed one run and struck out eight in 5.1 innings, his eight-inning, one-run masterpiece against the Diamondbacks on July 5 where he struck out 12, and a showdown with Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Angels on Aug. 25 in which he allowed two earned runs over 6.2 innings while striking out 10.