2 current NY Mets contracts David Stearns wouldn’t have offered, 1 he would have

Would David Stearns have signed Kodai Senga to his current contract?

Yes! Gosh, even with Kodai Senga missing practically all of 2024, it feels like a massive bargain. I think we’ll be surprised when we’re reminded in 2025 just how good he was as a rookie in 2023. Seventh place in the Cy Young? People made a big deal about Sean Manaea getting a single consideration. 

Senga’s contract can increase with a top 5 finish in the Cy Young and would have gained an opt out if he secured 400 innings in those first three years. He’s currently at 171.2 innings. He won’t come close.

Senga’s contract pays him $15 million annually through 2027 with a conditional team option based on the health of his elbow. If he remains on the IL for 130 consecutive days because of a right elbow injury, the team can escape the final year.

When Senga came over from Japan there were questions about just how good he could be. It’s never easy to tell. Shota Imanaga had a better rookie year than Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Imanaga was viewed as a fallback option for teams who wouldn’t go the extra mile to sign Yamamoto. Sometimes losing has its benefits.

At the time of Senga’s deal it didn’t look like an outrageous bargain. Now it definitely does even with the years committed to him. On the open market he’d get closer to $20 million if not more per year right now. His health could always have the contract looking less favorably by the end. As far as what Stearns would have seen at the time of his free agency, it’s the exact kind of deal he’d drool over making.