With the Mets choosing to go with three young pitchers to fill out their starting rotation, including Brandon Sproat who will debut on Sunday, something had to give with the regular contributors. On Friday afternoon, the Mets made the call, getting the approval and optioning the struggling Kodai Senga to Triple-A Syracuse, the team announced. In a subsequent move, the Mets also activated Francisco Alvarez, who has been working back from a UCL sprain in his right hand and a broken left pinky. This season, Senga is 7-6 with a 3.02 ERA, 1.32 WHIP and 109 strikeouts in 113⅓ innings, but those stats don't tell the whole story. Since the 32-year-old right-hander returned from the injured list after a month on the injured list with a right hamstring strain, he is 0-3 with a 5.90 ERA and a 1.69 WHIP. With several members of the Mets starting rotation tormented by an inability to get deep into games, Senga has been one of the chief culprits. Since the calendar turned to June, Senga has tossed five innings or more three times in nine starts. Before landing on the IL, Senga boasted a National League-best 1.47 ERA while 12 of his 13 starts were at least five innings. His strikeout-to-walk ratio was 2.35, compared to 1.85 since his return. The Mets have also had to be cautious with Senga's workload since he debuted since coming over from Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball in 2023. He has pitched on regular rest just once this season. The decision to send down Senga, which needed to be approved by the right-hander, will allow him to work on his mechanics to produce a little more power behind his pitches and more swing-and-miss stuff. The velocity is down on all of Senga's pitches since he returned from missing nearly all of the 2024 season with a shoulder capsule and calf strains. This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com:Kodai Senga demoted: Mets send struggling pitcher to AAA