Back in 2022, Hayden Senger was ranked the Mets 11th top prospect by Amazin’ Avenue. For context, here are the players who ranked behind him: Robert Dominguez (25), Levi David (24), Carlos Cortes (23), Travis Blankenhorn (22), Junior Santos (21), Brian Metoyer (20), Thomas Szapucki (19), Josh Walker (18), Jose Butto (17), Dominic Hamel (16), Adam Oller (15), Jake Mangum (14), Eric Orze (13), and Calvin Ziegler (12), and here are the players that were ranked in front of him: Jaylen Palmer (10), Alex
Ramirez (9), Nick Plummer (8), Khalil Lee (7), J.T. Ginn (6), Matthew Allan (5), Mark Vientos (4), Ronny Mauricio (3), Brett Baty (2), and Francisco Alvarez (1). Of those 25 players, 17 were promoted to the big leagues and saw major league playing time; Heyden Senger was one of those players.
In March 2025, Alvarez broke his left hamate during a spring training game, sidelining him for approximately 6-8 weeks. Luis Torrens, who backed up Alvarez in 2024, and Senger, who was on the 40-man roster, were suddenly competing for full-time starting duties. Torrens hit an uninspiring .239/.286/.348, while Senger hit an equally unimpressive .208/.296/.375. As the late Casey Stengel once noted, “You have to have a catcher, otherwise you will have a lot of passed balls”, and so the 2025 Mets began the season with Senger and Torres splitting catcher duties.
An article written by Anthony DiComo highlighting the hardships minor league grinders face during the off-season made Senger an early fan favorite, but unfortunately that wellspring of support did not improve his bat. A hitter whose career batting average in Double- and Triple-A barely was barely over the Mendoza line, the backstop hit .179/.207/.214 and was optioned to Syracuse at the end of the month when Francisco Alvarez was reinstated from the injured list. He bounced up and down between Triple-A Syracuse and the Mets for the rest of the season and ended up hitting .181/.221/.194 in 72 at-bats over 33 games for the Mets and .218/.268/.339 in 165 at-bats over 46 games with the Syracuse Mets. His 19 wRC+ with the Mets was 10th worst in all of Major League Baseball in 2025 among players to get at least 50 plate appearances, behind Jacob Amaya (-33), DaShawn Keirsey Jr. (-18), MJ Melendez (-14), Will Robertson (-13), Vinny Capra (-11), Jacob Stallings (-7), Jorge Barrosa (2), Jace Jung (9), and Jeimer Candelario (10).
Senger was never known as an offensive-oriented player, however. His placement on prospect lists, or simply his continued employment by the organization has always been predicated on his defensive abilities. In the 195.1 innings he played behind the dish, he was worth +5 Defensive Runs Saved and a +5 Fielding Run Value. Thanks to his defensive acumen, Senger accrued a net neutral 0.0 fWAR. That makes him more valuable than five others on that 2022 Top 25 Mets Prospects list that made it to the majors, tied with two others, and less valuable than nine.
Now 29-years-old, Senger will likely begin the season in Triple-A and will be on standby with his glove ready when and if the need for another catcher on the active roster arises. His bat? Not so much.
