In addition to Jacob deGrom, Carlos Rodón and Justin Verlander, the market of free agent starting pitchers includes Kodai Senga, who opted out of his contract with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of Nippon Professional Baseball.
Senga went 11-6 with a 1.89 ERA and 1.04 WHIP in 148 innings pitched across 23 games for the Hawks, while recording 159 strikeouts against 50 walks this season. The effort was one of the best seasons the right-hander has turned in.
The Los Angeles Dodgers were among the teams recently connected to Senga, and according to Jon Morosi on MLB Network, they have been joined by the New York Mets, New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, among others:
“The New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox, both of them have shown interest in Kodai Senga, who very importantly as we’ve covered before on the show, is a full free agent. There’s no posting fee involved, there’s no draft pick compensation involved. Because of that reason, a lot of high profile teams are showing interest in Kodai Senga right now as a free agent. As previously reported, the San Diego Padres and New York Mets as well, along with the Rangers. So we’re hearing some of these same teams a lot. Rangers, Padres, Mets, I believe the Dodgers have checked in as well, and again the Red Sox and Yankees.”
The Dodgers reportedly agreed to re-sign Clayton Kershaw for 2023, but still have multiple needs in their starting rotation. Verlander is believed to consider the Dodgers a potential fit.
Meanwhile, Senga profiles as a middle-of-the-rotation starter, with a fastball that can reach triple digits and an elite splitter. Some scouts have expressed concern about his secondary pitches and elbow injury history.
Dodgers process to sign Senga
Because Senga reached nine years of service time in Japan, he is a true free agent. Thus, signing the 29-year-old would not require a team to pay a posting fee to Fukuoka.
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