‘Reverse Clay Holmes’ plan with Kodai Senga can apply for one more NY Mets player

How’s this for a twist: the New York Mets trade Luke Weaver one day and a solution they’re now attempting is to have Kodai Senga step into the role. So over what he can give them as a starter, it’s a smart last resort. He began this with a scoreless ninth in their 6-2 win over the Cleveland Guardians on Tuesday. Not quite nosebleed levels of leverage, it was still a positive conclusion.

The day of declaring every relief pitcher as a failed starting pitcher seems over. The importance of relief pitching seems to begin at the amateur level and continue throughout many players’ minor league careers. There are those increasingly unique situations where a Clay Holmes arrives off of a successful stint as a reliever only to look plenty capable as a starting pitcher. With him out of the picture, rather than give Senga added leash to start games they’ve gone in reverse and will see if maybe he fits better as a starting pitcher.

He might not be the last one to end up there either. The Mets have one more player whose ultimate fate could have him, even if only temporarily, pitching in relief to get the most from him.

Jonah Tong is the next in line to become a high leverage reliever in the Mets bullpen

Far better lately, Jonah Tong had a 5-start July where he posted a 3.65 ERA across 24.2 innings. An abundance of walks, even when he was pitching well, pushed his pitch counts high several times and prevented him from ever going more than 5 innings. His most recent outing was one of his best all year, logging 5 frames while allowing 2 hits and no runs. It came with 7 strikeouts and a pair of walks.

At only 3-5 with a 5.24 ERA, Tong failed to join the immediate conversation as a guy who deserved big league innings. The Mets are giving Robert Stock another shot in the rotation for now while Tong continues to try to master Triple-A. The 2026 season invested fully in letting Tong figure it all out in Triple-A with three extended relief appearances at the end of May/early June.

Mixed results in the majors when he was with the big league club, one big league number stands out as a reason to start contemplating the change in Tong’s role. On pitches 1-25, Tong has a .214/.283/.262 slash line against him. It’s pitches 26-50 when he has fallen off a cliff with a .382/.476/.618 slash line.

Batters were only 3 for 24 against him this season in relief the first time they saw him. A minimal sample size, the results weren’t quite the same while working as a starter in 2025. This, of course, included that unforgettably bad start against Jacob deGrom and the Texas Rangers.

Like with many pitchers, there is a lot of grey area. Does a pitcher who struggles the first time through the order routinely but gets better deserve to be a starter? It’s not always just a “first time through” issue. A pitcher would undoubtedly behave differently if all he had to do was work one inning.

The thing with Tong, now, is he hasn’t lived up to expectations this season and the Mets can ill-afford to hand him a rotation spot next year. Nolan McLean and Christian Scott digging their heels in alongside what’ll likely be a return for Sean Manaea, the rotation spots are filling up fast. We’d have to expect the Mets to add one veteran in the offseason. This leaves one more spot. Tong, as of right now, isn’t a favorite.

There was plenty of talk in 2025 about Tong getting inserted into the pitcher-needy Mets bullpen to help save the season. Something David Stearns did with the Milwaukee Brewers with budding star pitchers, the Mets ended up needing him more as a starter and the results weren’t great.

Lost at the moment with fellow prospects Jack Wenninger and Jonathan Santucci with him in Syracuse, it’s way too early to give up on the pitcher Tong can be. Would it be so rotten to see what he can possibly do in September as a high-leverage bullpen arm? The Mets aren’t playing for anything and to limit his innings while giving him experience, it’s an experiment worth considering when it could always work for a year, allow him to get the big league experience he needs, and can end up reversed if needed in the future.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow