PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- The Mets’ rotation depth and health, two boons for them throughout Spring Training, have created a difficult situation as camp draws to a close.
On Saturday, that double-edged sword fell on Sean Manaea, who learned he will begin the season without a starting job. Instead, Manaea will serve as a bullpen arm for at least the first two rotation turns, as the Mets take advantage of off-days to use their other starters on a regular schedule.
In mid-April, the Mets will expand to a six-man rotation, creating space for Manaea -- provided he’s pitching well enough to reclaim that role.
“I consider myself a starter,” Manaea said after manager Carlos Mendoza delivered the news on Saturday morning. “To not be that is frustrating. But at the end of the day, I’m just going to let my pitching do the work in whatever capacity that is, and go from there.”
All spring, Mets officials discussed the likelihood of using a six-man rotation in the regular season. While they still plan to do so, a six-man setup creates more problems than solutions over the first two weeks of the schedule, given multiple team off-days sprinkled around their first 10 games. The Mets can instead use their other five starters on regular rest for their second starts of the season (excepting Opening Day starter Freddy Peralta, who will receive additional rest) and still give everyone an extra day before their third outings.
As such, the Mets have lined up their season-opening rotation like this:
- March 26 vs. PIT: Freddy Peralta
- March 28 vs. PIT: David Peterson
- March 29 vs. PIT: Nolan McLean
- March 30 @ STL: Clay Holmes
- March 31 @ STL: Kodai Senga
- April 1 @ STL: Freddy Peralta
The Mets won’t need a sixth starter for the first time until April 12, more than two full weeks into the season.
While that sixth man figures to be Manaea, Mendoza would not fully commit to the left-hander on Saturday, saying only that “he’s going to start for us” at some point. In the meantime, Manaea will pitch out of the bullpen -- likely piggybacking off another starter to stay stretched out, but possibly in shorter, leverage spots if game situations dictate it.
If Manaea pitches poorly in that role, it’s possible Tobias Myers, Christian Scott or Jonah Tong could become tempting options to join the rotation instead. While Manaea submitted solid results over his first three Grapefruit League starts, producing a 3.72 ERA, he averaged 88.6 mph on his fastball. That’s down 4.5 mph from his last healthy spring in 2024, and down nearly three ticks from where he sat last season after returning from injury.
Still, Mendoza insisted that “the velo’s got nothing to do with” his decision to remove Manaea from the rotation.
“Six guys throwing the ball pretty well,” was how Mendoza explained it. “And we were pretty honest with all of them at the beginning of camp: if everyone was healthy, we were going to have to make some tough decisions, and one of them was going to be pitching in that type of role.”
Complicating the situation is that the Mets are financially entangled with Manaea. The left-hander still has two years and $50 million remaining on the contract he signed after the 2024 season. It would be extremely difficult for the team to find a trade partner unless it was willing to eat the vast majority of that money -- something untenable considering the upside Manaea flashed in ‘24, producing a 3.02 ERA over his final 18 starts to earn his contract in the first place.
So for now, the Mets will use Manaea out of the bullpen, hope his velocity ticks up and see what things look like in mid-April. Manaea, whom the Giants bumped to the bullpen in 2023, is no stranger to this sort of situation. He described himself as disappointed, but he’s willing to do what’s necessary to make it work.
“We’ve got six very, very good starting pitchers, and at the end of the day, that’s the best version [of the team],” Manaea said. “I’m still pitching in the big leagues, so I can’t complain about anything.”