Manaea signed a two-year $28 million deal with New York last offseason and opted out following a great season. He also rejected a $21.05 million qualifying offer from New York earlier this offseason. With an average value of $25 million/year, Manaea has made the correct financial decisions by opting out and declining the qualifying offer. Manaea will look to improve on his 2024 form and help the New York Mets reach greater heights in 2025.
What Will Manaea Bring To the New York Mets?
Manaea joins a starting rotation that includes the newly acquired Griffin Canning and Frankie Montas. Kodai Senga is also looking to rebound from an injury-plagued 2024 campaign. New York’s starting rotation was one of their strengths last season as they were 15th in ERA, fifth in strikeouts, and second in opposing batting average. New York’s pitching struggled in the NLCS against the Los Angeles Dodgers though which ended their season.
Final Thoughts
New York’s marquee offseason acquisition was signing Juan Soto to a massive 15-year $765 million contract earlier this month. New York must now turn its attention to bringing back star First Baseman Pete Alonso. With the way that the MLB Offseason has unfolded, New York is seemingly the only remaining option for Alonso next season. All of the suitors for Alonso have found their first base option for the 2025 season. The Mets have remade their roster this offseason, and Manaea is the latest example.
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Was Sean Manaea the Final Piece of the Mets New Rotation?
By re-signing Sean Manaea, the New York Mets may have put the final touch on a rotation overhaul that saw them add four arms this winter.
Throughout this offseason, the New York Mets have stolen most headlines for their pursuit of top position players, with their historic signing on Juan Soto and now their negotiations with homegrown star Pete Alonso.
Yet with all of the attention those two stars have generated, the tallest task for David Stearns and the Mets front office has really been to rebuild most of their starting rotation through free agency.
The Mets top three starters in 2024 all hit free agency as soon as the Mets were eliminated in Game 6 of the NLCS, with Sean Manaea, Luis Severino and Jose Quintana all hitting the open market.
That trio combined for the most innings pitched the Mets have gotten from three starters since 2019, when Jacob deGrom, Zack Wheeler and Noah Syndergaard all cleared 195 innings pitched.
Each of the Mets top three starters eclipsed 170 innings pitched in 2024, and all reached that mark with an ERA below 4.00. Of the other 30 teams in MLB, only the Phillies, Mariners and Royals had three pitchers who accomplished both of those feats.
The difference is that those teams retained all of those players heading into this offseason, where the Mets could have lost them all in free agency. To combat the potential loss of these arms, the Mets extended qualifying offers to both Severino and Manaea, but both pitchers declined.
Mets Sign Sean Manaea to Three-year, $75 Million Deal
It was long rumored that the Mets were interested in retaining Sean Manaea, but the left-hander had really become the top left-handed starter on the market after both Blake Snell and Max Fried signed.
Manaea will turn 33 years old in February, and this marked his third consecutive trip to free agency.
Back in 2023, Manaea signed a two-year $25 million deal with the San Francisco Giants, which included an opt-out after he made $10 million during the 2023 season. Manaea hit free agency a little over a year ago, and went on to sign his first contract with the Mets.
It was clear that Manaea enjoyed his time in New York, and now he gets to run it back, but with a new $765 million teammate in Juan Soto. He also will be paired up with a former teammate from his days in Oakland, with Frankie Montas having opened up the Mets spending spree last month.
Mets Have Been Busy Adding Pitching
The Mets entered the offseason with the task of having to replace 534 innings pitched from their 2024 starting rotation. That is not easy to accomplish in one offseason.
The first move President of Baseball Operations David Stearns made was to sign right-handed pitcher Frankie Montas to a two-year, $34 million deal.
Montas is coming off a season where he pitched to a 4.84 ERA in 150 2/3 innings pitched.
Manaea was still the final piece the Mets had to add to make everything else fall into place though, giving the Mets five viable starting pitchers who enter camp with a near-guaranteed rotation spot, and then a handful of depth arms competing for sixth starter role.
Are the Mets Done Adding to Their Rotation?
With Montas, Holmes, Canning and Manaea, the Mets have signed four starting pitchers to MLB deals this offseason.
Most teams have only inked one or two starters at this stage, if any at all. The Mets have spent over $150 million on their rotation, and suddenly the group looks a lot more complete, with plenty of depth to navigate a long season.
| Mets Starting Rotation | Depth Options |
| 1. Kodai Senga, RHP | Paul Blackburn, RHP |
| 2. Sean Manaea, LHP | Griffin Canning, RHP |
| 3. Frankie Montas, RHP | *Tylor Megill, RHP |
| 4. *David Peterson, LHP | Jose Butto, RHP |
| 5. Clay Homes, RHP |
Looking at the top of the rotation, the Mets hope that Kodai Senga can return to ace form after an injury-plagued year in 2024.
After a shoulder injury sidelined him until late July, Senga returned to the mound to make one start against the Braves, where he struck out nine batters in 5 1/3 innings pitched. Unfortunately, Senga pulled his calf getting out of the way of a pop-up and missed the rest of the regular season.
Senga returned in October and made two starts, but did not have time to stretch out properly and ended up being more of a detriment than a help to the Mets in the NLCS. Still, Senga is just one year removed from pitching to a 2.98 ERA with 202 strikeouts in his rookie season in 2023.
By making Manaea their top offseason addition, instead of shooting higher for an arm like Corbin Burnes, the Mets are banking on a bounce back from Senga.
They are also making a bet on Manaea to continue the progression we saw at of the end of last season, where he filled into Senga’s shoes as the Mets de facto ace.
Beyond Senga and Manaea, the Mets are hoping to strike lightening in a bottle again with Holmes and Montas, similar to what they had last year with Manaea and Severino.
Especially with top pitching prospect, and top 100 prospect, Brandon Sproat set to open the season in Triple-A.
You can never have enough pitching depth, but for now it seems like the Mets have done a good enough job building it out for their starting rotation. The next task for this front office is to shift the focus to adding bullpen arms that can set up their closer, Edwin Diaz.
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