The New York Mets set their rotation going into the season, and it didn't go well for left-hander Sean Manaea.
The New York Mets set their starting rotation for Opening Day this weekend, and the big news is that Sean Manaea will be moving to the bullpen to start the season, according to a piece written by Jorge Castillo of ESPN.
This move isn’t surprising. The Mets basically entered spring training with a competition for roles at the back of the rotation, and veteran pitchers Kodai Senga Clay Holmes and David Peterson all pitched well, which was surprising given their struggles in the second half of last season.
That left Manaea as the odd man out. He struggled in spring training, and as Castillo noted, his velocity has been declining steadily in the last few seasons. He landed in the high 80s in his last start, so it’s fair to wonder how healthy he was after Manaea elected not to undergo surgery after leaning that he had loose bodies in his elbow.
Manaea denied any health issues, and Mets manager Carlos Mendeza continued to support him in his struggles, maintaining that his pitcher was in contention for a starting role when he clearly wasn’t.
"Six guys throwing the ball really well," Mendoza said. "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."
Manaea will now be piggybacked with certain starters to log multiple innings in games, according to Mendoza. This isn’t a new role for Manaea, as the Mets did this successfully with him last September, but as soon as Manaea made it back into the rotation his struggles returned.
Mendoza is still towing the party line that Mendoza will make starts, but this remains very much up in the air. A lot of pitchers would have been released after a year like last season for Manaea, but the 34-year old pitcher signed a three-year, $75 million that will likely earn him at least one or two more chances.
"He's gonna make starts for us," Mendoza insisted "So this is a couple times through, making sure guys go through their routine, and we'll revisit when we have to, and maybe then it's somebody else's turn."
How Manaea reacts to the waiting game over the long haul is anybody’s guess at this point. Going into last season he was expected to lead the rotation, and now he’s not even part of it, so he didn’t exactly react well to the move.
"Not happy, even though we were pretty up front with all of them," Mendoza said when he was asked about Manaea’s reaction. "But he was very respectful. He understood. ... Like I said, right now, it's Sean doing that, but it could easily be someone else, and they are well aware of that."