Mets retain Sean Manaea with a three-year deal
The free agent pitching signing that most fans wanted to see came thru early this morning, as the Mets re-signed Sean Manaea to a 3/$75 deal. There were rumors that Manaea was going to get four or more years and pull down a nine-figure deal. But this seems like the right contract for both player and team. Manaea gets to return to a place where he’s comfortable and had success while the Mets get a top-of-the rotation starter on a deal less than half as long as Max Fried got and one that Corbin Burnes is still seeking.
Conventional wisdom is that Manaea turned his season around once he adopted a lower arm angle last year. And while it’s true he pitched very well once he did that, there was nothing wrong with what he was doing before that mechanical tweak. On July 25, Chris Sale defeated the Mets in a strong performance, one that allegedly inspired the arm-angle change from Manaea.
In Manaea’s final 12 starts of the year after watching Sale, he went 10-2 and posted a 3.09 ERA. But in the eight games prior to that Sale performance, Manaea went 3-1 with a 2.98 ERA.
In the 20 starts before the arm-angle change, Manaea had three absolute clunkers and 17 starts right in line with what he did at the end of the season. Two of those clunkers came in back-to-back starts right before that eight-game span mentioned above.
Regardless of the narrative versus reality of Manaea’s 2024 campaign, the big takeaway is that he was able to maintain the effectiveness of his sweeper, a pitch he incorporated midway thru 2023 with great success, over an entire season.
The one worry about Manaea’s first year with the Mets was how he started giving up home runs as the year progressed. In his last 15 games, he allowed 14 HR in 92.1 IP, compared to 7 HR in his first 89.1 IP of the season.
But the gopher ball was the only way that hitters had any success at all versus Manaea down the stretch, as he limited opposing hitters to a .597 OPS – despite the homers – in those final 15 games.
It’s great news that the Mets retained Manaea. My opinion was that David Stearns was going to make one more major addition to the rotation and then focus on other parts of the team. Some felt that there were two big starters to be added, so we’ll see if another SP with an AAV of eight figures is added to the roster.
Manaea’s return, at what in this market is a reasonable contract (with about about $24 million deferred) makes me much more comfortable with the offseason. Not to complain when the owner commits $800 million to a HOF bat, but there are still holes. The Phillies have quite a deep staff, and in a perfect world I’d like to see the Mets add another top 3 starter and high leverage pen arm, along with that Alonso/Bergman bat. Boy how greedy I am getting lol.
Just read that Manaea deferred almost 24 million of his contract to be paid over a 10 year period starting in 2035. Great move by him and great move giving the Mets more payroll flexibility.