Southpaw who revived career with Mets to opt out of contract

Left-hander Sean Manaea plans to opt out of the second year of his contract with the Mets, MLB.coms Anthony DiComo writes .

Manaea signed a two-year, $28M free agent deal with New York last winter that contained the player option for the 2025 season, and hell now leave $13.5M on the table in search of a longer and more lucrative guarantee this offseason.

Hes a virtual lock to receive a $21.05M qualifying offer but is overwhelmingly likely to decline that in his pursuit of a longer-term pact.

Manaeas decision comes as little surprise.

The two-year pact he inked in Queens came in his second free agency foray.

Since first reaching the open market on the heels of the 2022 season, hes signed a pair of two-year contracts with opt-outs after year one, showing a willingness to bet on himself and the confidence that hell eventually land a longer-term contract.

Given the strength of his 2024 campaign, he will likely find a guarantee of at least three years in free agency.

Entering the 2024 season, Manaea was viewed as a veteran stabilizer for the Mets rotation.

New Yorks president of baseball operations, David Stearns, made a series of short-term acquisitions in the rotation Luis Severino also inked a one-year deal, and Adrian Houser was acquired from the Brewers to patch things over in what most expected to be a transitional year for the Mets.

Instead, the Amazins romped through the seasons final four months as the sports hottest team and rode that momentum to the NLCS.

Manaeas success was a huge part of that run.

The 6-foot-5, 245-pound southpaw pitched a career-high 181 2/3 innings in the regular season and worked to a sharp 3.47 ERA.

He fanned one-quarter of his opponents, issued walks at a solid 8.5% clip, and deftly avoided home runs (1.04 HR/9).

Solid as the year-long numbers were, it was the second half where Manaea truly took off.

Manaea altered his throwing motion midseason closely resembling the delivery of likely NL Cy Young winner Chris Sale and, at the suggestion of pitching coach Jeremy Hefner, began a unique pregame workout wherein he throws to the opposite mound in the bullpen while warming ( X link, with video, via Steve Gelbs of SNY).

The transformation was nearly immediate.

Over the final two-plus months of the year, Manaea pitched to a 3.09 ERA with an improved 28.5% strikeout rate against a 6.2% walk rate.

He ditched his cutter entirely and eventually ditched his four-seamer, all in the name of throwing more sinkers and sliders.

Opponents had averaged 89.2 mph against him before the changes and posted a 40.8% hard-hit rate, per Statcast.

Down the stretch, those numbers plummeted to 87.5 mph and 32.4%, respectively.

Manaeas excellence carried on through three postseason starts.

Still, he finally ran into a wall in the Mets final game of the year, surrendering five runs in just two innings in the decisive Game 6 loss to the eventual World Champion Dodgers.

In free agency, Manaea will market not only a career-high workload (200-plus innings, including the postseason) but also newly altered mechanics and a tweaked repertoire that led to his late-season surge.

Hell turn 33 in February, making anything longer than a four-year deal extraordinarily unlikely, but a three-year pact at a strong annual value should be on the table.

The Mets are in the market for multiple starting pitchers and will surely have interest in retaining the big lefty, but Manaea will command interest from a broad range of suitors.

Hes one of the top starters on the market this time, but his age will prevent him from landing the type of long-term deal many clubs shy away from.

This article first appeared on MLB Trade Rumors and was syndicated with permission..

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