During a week in which the Mets had received mostly bad injury news, they finally got something positive on Thursday — even if it came in the same breath as losing starting second baseman Jeff McNeil for Opening Day.
Starting pitcher Sean Manaea has been cleared to throw after a follow-up MRI on his injured right oblique, manager Carlos Mendoza disclosed.
The 33-year-old southpaw played catch for the first time on Tuesday and was symptom-free.
“We have to pretty much build him back up as a starter,” Mendoza said (h/t SNY). “The good thing is he’s feeling good, and there’s nothing going on there… Now, it’s just [throwing from] 75, 90, 120 [feet] before he gets on the mound.”
It keeps him on track with president of baseball operations David Stearns’ timeline, which he speculated about last week, saying that Manaea could return “somewhere in mid-to-late April.”
Ensuring that one of last year’s heroes does not miss a considerable amount of time to start the season is a significant win for a team already nursing a number of injuries.
Frankie Montas will be out until at least May with a lat issue, meaning New York will start the season with a likely six-man rotation of Kodai Senga, Clay Holmes, David Peterson, Tylor Megill, Griffin Canning, and Paul Blackburn.
Once Manaea gets the green light to return, he will slot in as the Mets’ No. 2 starter.
Brought in by Stearns last season, Manaea made a full-time return to a starting role after splitting the 2023 campaign between the rotation and the bullpen while with the San Francisco Giants. He was one of New York’s aces down the stretch alongside Luis Severino, adopting the role while Kodai Senga missed all but 5.1 innings due to injuries, going 12-6 with a 3.47 ERA and 184 strikeouts in a career-high 181.2 innings pitched.
