The Mets continued their busy offseason on December 23 by bringing back a key piece of their 2023 team. Left-hander Sean Manaea is headed back to the Mets on a three-year deal reportedly worth $75MM. Manaea comes out ahead after turning down his $13.5MM player option for 2025.
A Look at Manaea
The Mets signed left-hander Sean Manaea last winter after a good 2023 in San Francisco. Manaea pitched well with the Giants after a downturn in production with the Padres. However, what he did with the Mets was special, to say the least.
Last season, Manaea struck out 184 batters over 181.2 IP during the regular season. The 32-year-old then struck out 19 over 19 frames in the playoffs, and highlights from the postseason included seven strong innings in Game 3 of the NLDS and a win in Game 2 of the NLCS.
In that latter game, Manaea struck out seven batters and made several Dodgers look foolish.
Manaea underwent a significant overhaul compared to past versions of Manaea. The lefty changed his delivery by loweing his arm slot and becoming more cross-fire, compared to 2023.
What that did was a number of things. One, it gave both his four-seamer and sinker more bite. Two, it made it incredibly difficult for left-handed batters to pick him up, since he starts from their left, ends on the right, almost near the first-base side. That makes it harder for left-handed bats to pick his arm slot over their shoulder.
In total, Manaea dropped his arm angle six degrees on average compared to 2023. Batters hit only .167 off his four-seamer, which plays up thanks to well-above-average extension (96th percentile) and that arm slot. Also, the two-seamer became a highly-used weapon for Manaea last season.
Manaea’s sinker is more of a running two-seamer, which meant less sink. But, it doesn’t matter, as his two-seamer has good movement and makes it hard to pick up, even up in the zone.
Additionally, Manaea made increased usage of his sweeping slider. Manaea used it over 7% more compared to 2024, not terribly surprising given the increased usage of the sinker. Both pitches have side-spin, making the two ideal weapons to play off one another. His sweeper had a 38.8% Whiff% on it last season.
On top of the four-seamer, two-seamer, and sweeper, Manaea will use a cutter and changeup.
The 32-year-old had his best career season with the Mets. Manaea finished with a career-high 3.0 bWAR and finished 11th in the NL Cy Young Award vote.
Per reports, the Mets re-signed Sean Manaea to a three-year deal worth $75MM.
Analysis
The move to Queens worked out great for Manaea, who successfully re-invented himself and played a key role for the Mets’ run to the NLCS last fall.
Manaea put up ace-like numbers as the Mets’ most valuable starter and now will be called upon to do the same, in a rotation that tentatively will include Kodai Senga, David Peterson, Frankie Montas, and Clay Holmes. Tylor Megill, former Angels pitcher Griffin Canning, and Paul Blackburn — who may not be available for the start of 2025 — are among depth options.
Aside from their failed pursuit of Yoshinobu Yamamoto last winter, the Mets have been focused more on short-term deals with pitchers over the last two offseasons. It’s a strategy that limits risk but also one that differs from other analytics-friendly teams, like the Dodgers, who haven’t been afraid to lock up pitchers, even those with injury histories.
But so far, that strategy was worked.