Sean Manaea had been something of an explorer for the better part of the last half-decade.
In each of the previous four seasons, the 32-year-old left-handed pitcher played for four different teams, bouncing around California from the Oakland Athletics to the San Diego Padres and then to the San Francisco Giants before signing on with the New York Mets for the 2024 season.
Manaea made the most of the chance the Mets gave him, pitching a career-high 181.2 innings while going 12-6 with a 3.47 ERA and 184 strikeouts to provide New York’s rotation with a stalwart — especially in the second half of the season.
In search of a multi-year deal, he opted out of the second year of his contract for a bit more security in the term of a longer-term deal. He got just that with the Mets, inking a three-year, $75 million deal last month to finally provide an opportunity to call the same city home for a bit.
“It’s fun being on an adventure of seeing new cities and being in different organizations, meeting new friends, stuff like that, but at a certain point, it’s kind of nice to settle down and lay some roots,” Manaea said on Monday. “Me and my wife are very excited for that, just knowing where we’re going to be for the next three years, which is incredible. It’s a great feeling. We now can actually plan some things better and not kind of wander around all the time. We’re looking forward to that.”
Manaea was always vocal about staying with the Mets. Even moments after their elimination from the NLCS, the southpaw expressed his desire to come back, a notion that was maintained throughout the winter.
“I thought it was a perfect fit,” Manaea began. “Just organizationally, I thought they did a lot of great things. I learned a lot from [pitching coach Jeremy Hefner] and the rest of the staff. Overall, I was just very happy with my time here. They reached out and said they wanted to reunite. I knew that was kind of like a top priority so after talking… I think we made the right decision and I’m super happy to be back.”
Hefner was mentioned multiple times as a big reason why Manaea wanted to be back in Queens. Under Hefner’s supervision, Manaea transformed from a fringe starter who was demoted to the Giants’ bullpen in 2023 to a front-line option with the Mets thanks to constant tweaks and experimentations with his delivery.
After he lowered his arm slot in July, he went 6-1 with a 2.63 ERA and 82 strikeouts compared to 16 walks in 72 innings pitched across 11 starts from July 30 to Sept. 21.
“Learning to be myself and as far as pitching coaches go, he allowed me to be myself and experiment with some things and bounce some ideas off of him,” Manaea said of Hefner. “He’s very easy to talk to as far as pitching and pitch design and all these different things… he just made everything super easy. The rest of the staff as well.”
Manaea has continued working with analytics-driven development centers Driveline Baseball and Diesel Optimization in Tampa, FL — the labs that helped turn his career around — in hopes of refining his changeup this winter.
It would add a fourth imposing pitch to an arsenal that saw significant progress in his four-seam fastball, his putaway sweeper, and his go-to pitch, the sinker.
“My changeup I would say is the biggest thing,” Manaea said. “Just keeping that thing consistent. I know it could be great at times, and at times, it’s kind of good. So the more I can just have it be great, the better off I’ll be. At the end of the day, experimenting is cool, and that’s what the offseason is for: to try new things.”
The offseason and spring training, which is less than one month away, is also for cementing himself atop a Mets rotation that has its fair share of uncertainties. Entering the 2025 season, president of baseball operations David Stearns and manager Carlos Mendoza are projected to roll in with a six-man rotation, with Manaea sharing ace duties with Kodai Senga, who missed all but five innings of the 2024 regular season.
