Losing Jacob deGrom in the offseason seemed to be a big hit on the Mets rotation. However, the Steve Cohen-owned New York Mets never looked back, and instead moved to strengthen their rotation led by Max Scherzer. Their first move was to bring Astros’ star and 2022 American League Cy Young winner Justin Verlander to Queens. This was followed by the acquisition of Japanese sensation Kodai Senga for $75 million by beating the Giants to the finish line.

The six-foot-one-inch right-handed pitcher is popularly known for his high velocity and his excessively deceptive forkball, also known as the ghost fork in his homeland.

Kodai Senga deploys his signature pitch

As the Mets toppled the Cardinals 1-7 in Kodai Senga’s first spring training start, the Japanese star brought out his signature forkball. As expected, Cardinals left fielder Jordan Walker couldn’t pick the ball, and became the first victim to Senga’s ghost ball.

In the two innings that he pitched, Senga managed to touch 98.6mph with his fastball, along with two strikeouts and giving one run.

As expected, Senga, like multiple other pitchers in the league, struggled with the pitch clock in his debut and spoke about being distracted due to the clock. He said, “Before I got up there, I was very excited to face those guys, but once I was up there, my mind was kind of looking over at the pitch clock and couldn’t enjoy it as much as I wanted to. I see five [seconds] on the pitch clock and I feel very rushed, but in reality five seconds is quite a long time, so [I’m] just getting used to that.”

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Fans absolutely enjoyed his ghost fork. Moreover, they always heard about the potential strength Senga added to their rotation, but now, they finally saw it.

This is how fans reacted:

Notably, before shifting to Major League Baseball, Kodai Senga spent over a decade with Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks and made three All-Star appearances, along with being the strikeout leader in 2019 and 2020.

The star-spangled New York Mets rotation:

After beating the Giants in the Senga bidding war, the Mets now house an excessively strong rotation led by Max Scherzer. Along with Justin Verlander, Jose Quintana, Carlos Carrasco, and now the likes of rookie Kodai Senga, their rotation will consistently stand amongst their strong suits in the 2023 season.

Do you think Kodai Senga will live up to his reputation through the 2023 season? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

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