3 New York Mets stealing money from the team due to a bad contract

1. SP Kodai Senga

To be entirely fair Senga has yet throw a meaningful pitch for the Mets, as he came over from Japan this offseason. But there will be questions about his transition to American baseball, as there always are with Japanese players, and the Mets ponied up (five years, $75 million) for the privilege of seeing how he does.

Earlier this month, Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported Senga had an “iffy” physical with the Mets before an agreement was reached on the aforementioned deal. The issue was apparently related to his elbow, which is a scary thought. It also explains the ultimate structure of the contract, with a player opt-out after 2025 if he pitches 400 innings over 2023-25 and some innings-based incentives.

Senga threw more than 1,300 innings over 11 seasons in Japan, and he’s 30 years old. It’s common for Japanese pitchers to show more wear and tear on their arms since starters throw more innings at younger ages, as Heyman noted. But in Japan, starters only pitch once a week –not every fifth day as is customary in MLB.

Senga comes to the Mets and MLB as already an injury risk. A lengthy IL stint feels more likely than 25-30 starts. And that is a problem, when he’s making $15 million this season and would be the highest-paid pitcher on a lot of teams.

This is where it’s worth mentioning a couple of deferred salaries the Mets have on their books this year. No, not Bobby Bonilla.

Robinson Cano will collect $20.25 million from the Mets this year. They will also pay catcher James McCann $11 million to play for the Baltimore Orioles this season, after acknowledging a big free-agent mistake and trading him.