Sean Manaea Earning Ace Label For Mets

While Sean Manaea isn’t your prototypical ace, he has pitched like an ace at times for the New York Mets in the second half of the season. On Tuesday, the New York Mets needed their left-hander to set the tone in Arizona after a rough loss in San Diego on Sunday. He did just that and then some.

In Tuesday’s 8-3 win over the Diamondbacks, Manaea did have a rough time in the seventh inning, but he was dominant for six innings. He went 6 2/3 innings, allowed three runs on four hits, struck out 11, and did not walk a batter on 103 pitches (73 strikes). The 11 strikeouts tied a season-high that he set a month ago (July 30 against the Twins).

According to Baseball Savant, Manaea recorded 17 swings and misses, 13 of which came from either his fastball or sinker. Although Corbin Carroll did damage on the sinker with a two-run home run in the seventh, the other home run (solo shot by Lourdes Gurriel Jr.) came on a changeup.

As August comes to a close, Manaea did have his third-highest ERA of any month this year (3.52 in five starts). That being said, he had a season-high for strikeouts in a month (37) and walked six batters in 30 2/3 innings. Those 37 K’s are tied for the third-most in the National League in August (with Sonny Gray and Zack Wheeler).

If you look at Manaea’s numbers since the All-Star break, he has held opposing hitters to a .199 average, has a WHIP of 0.99, and has 53 strikeouts in 47 1/3 innings (8 starts). The only three pitchers with more strikeouts in the NL in that stretch are Gray, Spencer Schwellenbach, and Blake Snell. In addition, his WHIP is tied for the third-lowest in the league, and he has the fourth-lowest batting average against.

During his postgame interview, Manaea discussed some of the changes that he has made, which have led him to four double-digit strikeout performances in 2024. He mentioned that simplifying his mechanics has been the key, and everything else has fallen into place.

“Mechanically just simplifying everything. Getting to a point where I can repeat consistently and being able to attack guys on a consistent basis. That’s pretty much the main thing,” Manaea said.

After recording his 10th win of the year, Brandon Nimmo threw the comparison out there on SNY that he hadn’t seen anyone thrown like Manaea did since Jacob deGrom was wearing a Mets uniform. While that may be a bit of a stretch, the left-hander will be one the Mets heavily rely upon in September to keep them in the wild card race.

Whether he’s deGrom or not, Manaea went into Arizona and, for the most part, shut down one of the hottest teams in baseball. It is not only a start that will help the team in the short term but also help him in the long term if he decides to opt out of his contract at the end of the year.

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