Guardians should avoid trying to rehabilitate this former All-Star pitcher via trade

In 2023, Kodai Senga put together a stellar rookie season where he posted a 2.98 ERA in 166 1/3 innings to finish as the runner-up in the National league Rookie of the Year voting. 

Now, a little more than two years later, Senga is reportedly generating some trade interest as a buy-low candidate after a dismal 2025 season, per The Athletic’s Will Sammon. 

It’s quite a fall from grace for Senga, who entered the 2024 season as a budding ace but finished the 2025 season in Triple-A for a Mets team that just missed out on the postseason. 

While the Guardians are among baseball’s best at helping injured pitchers turn their career around, Senga has too many red flags (and would likely be worth a bit too much prospect capital) for a trade to be worth it for the Guardians. 

A trade for Kodai Senga doesn’t make sense for the Guardians 

The biggest thing to mention first off is that the Guardians may not even be able to trade for Senga thanks to the intricacies of his contract. While Senga no longer has a full trade clause, he can block moves to 10 unknown teams. 

But the Guardians should still stay away from him even if they aren’t on that list. 

Yes, Senga has a 3.00 ERA in 285 career innings, but there’s more to it than that. After making just one start in 2024 due to a shoulder injury, Senga seemed to put all of the injury concerns in the rearview mirror in 2025 when he posted a 1.74 ERA in his first 13 starts of the year. 

But then he suffered a calf-strain in mid-June that may have changed the tenor of his career. He returned after just a month on the shelf and posted a 5.90 ERA in his nine starts after returning. He struck out just 20.6% of the batters he faced off in that time and posted a walk rate of 12.7%.  

The Mets ended up optioning him to Triple-A in the hopes he could turn things around, but he only made two starts in the minors and never returned to the bigs. The Mets ended up missing the postseason by a single game. 

His initial season was great, but he’s only thrown 146 innings in the majors and minors across the past two seasons. He’s still under contract for two more seasons at $14 million, so a trade for him would be a long-term play as opposed to a more short-term free agent signing. 

Although the Guardians finished last year with a six-man rotation consisting of Tanner Bibee, Gavin Williams, Parker Messick, Joey Cantillo and Logan Allen, starting pitching is still a bit of a need due to the lack of MLB-ready depth. But even with that, it makes more sense for the Guardians' front office to go after a budget free agent than trade for a pitcher with red flags. 

It’s one thing to sign Matthew Boyd and John Means to small contracts; trading for an injured pitcher who would become the second-highest paid player on the roster is a different story. 

The Guardians have built a perennial contender by making great moves on the margins, but a trade for Senga wouldn’t be worth it.