Mets’ Kodai Senga impresses in ‘effortless’ first live BP session at spring training

Kodai Senga told reporters earlier this week that his injury troubles from last season are officially behind him.

Following a largely dominant rookie campaign in which he finished seventh in NL Cy Young voting, the Japanese right-hander was expected to take his spot atop the Mets’ rotation, but he ended up being sidelined for the majority of the year.

Senga was able to make his way back for the playoffs but he was limited to a total of just four outings on the season as he dealt with shoulder, triceps, and calf issues.

But now that he’s back fully healthy he expects to put together a regular spring training, and Saturday afternoon was certainly a good start, as he tossed his first live batting practice session of the spring.

Senga threw just 16 pitches but he was impressive as he retired the trio of Ronny Mauricio, Francisco Alvarez and Jeff McNeil in order before allowing a hard-hit knock in the gap to the last batter he faced, Brett Baty.

He mixed in all of his pitches and reached up to 96 mph on the gun, according to Anthony Dicomo of MLB.com — an encouraging sign this early into camp.

“Everything looked good,” Carlos Mendoza said. “I saw a smile on his face which is good. The fact that he’s facing hitters this early in camp is a good sign. It was effortless. I was asking for the velo and with the way the ball was coming out, it looked good.”

The Mets will continue taking things one day at a time to ensure he’ll be ready to go when Opening Day rolls around, but Saturday’s strong session was certainly a positive development.

Having Senga back healthy and dominating would certainly be a huge boost for a six-man rotation that also contains the likes of Sean Manaea, Clay Holmes, David Peterson, Frankie Montas, and one of Griffin Canning, Paul Blackburn, and Tylor Megill.

While there is currently no clear-cut ace in that group, Mendoza emphasized that there’s no pressure on Senga to step up and be that guy.

“We’ve talked to him about that,” the skipper said. “We want to build him up to be himself and a player for us. He doesn’t have to be the hero or feel like he’s the ace of the staff because we have some options at the front-end. We want him to go through his progression to be a healthy player and ready to make an impact in a positive way.”