Sean Manaea Returns to Lead Mets Rotation

Sean Manaea is coming back to Queens in 2025.

What a gift for New York Mets fans just two days before Christmas. With the New York Yankees making one more after another in recent weeks since Juan Soto left the Bombers for the Amazin's, many Mets' fans have been wondering when their team would strike again.

Well, they did in the wee-hours of Monday morning as the Mets and Manaea agreed to a three-year, $75 million deal.

Bringing back Manaea was a no-brainer for the Mets. They took a flyer on him last season, and he turned out to be the staff ace of the club by season's end. Manaea finished 12-6 with a 3.47 ERA in 32 starts. In the postseason Manaea made four starts, winning two of them.

Perhaps his best outing of the playoffs came against Philadelphia in the NLDS, when he held the Phillies to a run on three hits over seven-plus innings of work.

With Manaea back in the rotation, the Mets now have someone who can be their legitimate Opening Day starter, unless they can add another arm or two before Spring Training. Behind Manaea the Mets still have a patch-work rotation.

They are hopeful that Kodi Senga can return to the form he displayed pre-injury in 2023, and are betting that the David Peterson they saw in the second half of 2024 becomes a permanent fixture. New York is also taking flyers on ex-Yankees Frankie Montas and Clay Holmes. Holmes, a former reliever, is said to be moving into the rotation this Spring.

ALONSO NEXT?

With Manaea aboard, the attention once again turns to Pete Alonso. The first base market is drying up with the Yankees singing Paul Goldschmidt; the Astros inking Christian Walker, and the D-Backs trading for Cleveland's Josh Naylor.

It makes all the sense in the world for Alonso to return to the Mets, but that depends on whether the two sides can finally agree on a deal; perhaps a shorter term deal than Alonso had been seeking.

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