The Giants are showing interest in free agent starter Sean Manaea, reports Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. San Francisco president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi told reporters last night the team was seeking rotation help.
Manaea’s one of a number of mid-tier free agent starting pitchers available. The left-hander is a bit of a bounceback candidate after a rough second half with the Padres, although he’s typically provided teams with solid mid-rotation production. Manaea worked to an ERA between 3.59 and 4.37 during his four full seasons with the Athletics. Oakland’s spacious home ballpark and excellent team defenses certainly helped him, but the Indiana State product also consistently pounded the strike zone and tended to induce ground-balls at a decent clip.
That typically effective track record led San Diego to acquire him from the A’s this past spring. Manaea was expected to fortify an already strong rotation, and he mostly did so through his first few months at Petco Park. At the All-Star Break, he carried a 4.11 ERA with an above-average 23.9% strikeout rate. From the second half onwards, however, he was tagged for more than six earned runs per nine. By year’s end, he owned a career-worst 4.96 mark, and he was shelled for five runs in 1 1/3 innings during his sole postseason outing.
It’s certainly not the way the 30-year-old (31 in February) envisioned closing out his platform year. At the same time, there’s also reason to believe he’ll still have a strong market. Manaea’s strikeout and walk rates in the second half remained good (22.1% and 4.7%, respectively). He was brutally home run prone down the stretch, allowing 2.35 longballs per nine innings. That’s obviously untenable, but he’s unlikely to surrender homers on nearly 19% of his fly balls over a larger sample. Manaea tends to allow a lot of hard contact, but the 2022 campaign was the first in which that translated to serious problems keeping the ball in the yard.
That could point to Manaea being a target for teams with a pitcher-friendly home environment. The Giants have one of the league’s worst outfield defenses, but they expect to bring in a pair of outfielders from outside the organization this winter. Oracle Park also remained one of the more difficult venues for hitters to clear the walls. San Francisco has had a fair bit of success in recent years bringing in starting pitching from the middle of the free agent market. Players like Kevin Gausman and Anthony DeSclafani have each done well as bounceback candidates with the Giants, although it’s certainly not guaranteed Manaea will have to take a one-year pillow deal. Jeff Passan of ESPN floated that possibility last week, although the lack of a qualifying offer and the southpaw’s quality strikeout and walk numbers could lead to decent multi-year interest.
Meanwhile, Slusser adds the Giants have engaged representative Scott Boras at this week’s Winter Meetings regarding clients Carlos Correa and Brandon Nimmo. Both are known to be San Francisco targets, with Correa reportedly the team’s preferred option of this winter’s shortstop class. Of course, either player would seem to take a backseat on the priority list for Aaron Judge, to whom the Giants have reportedly offered a deal in the $360MM range. It’s theoretically possible the Giants could remain aggressive after Nimmo even if they land Judge, but it’s hard to envision them nabbing both Judge and Correa — the two top free agents remaining.
I saw this on MLB network and I don’t believe it
He’s just overrated. Saw him quite a bit this year pitch against the Giants and I wasn’t impressed. Giants aren’t looking for value guys this year, they’re looking for quality.
Better chance they sign Senga.
I respect your opinion but it’s about value.
He’s a pretty good pitcher who just happened to have a terrible year. It’s worth a look if not expensive.
What scares me is his pitching splits. Padres has a very friendly pitcher park and putting that into prospective his split nearly double while pitching ion the road. We could say he had a bad year however that trend followed him in 2020 & 2016. He’s a gamble in my view so if the price is right then why not!
He’s a bit overrated but then again who isnt that comes from Oakland A’s? He’s a good #3 or #4 arm in the rotation when pitching well. He could be better if he got ahold of his WHIP & didn’t allow as many hits.
I believe all Farhan wants is value guys. that way, he gets no flak when they fail and all sorts of undeserved praise when they succeed. His ego drives every move he makes.
Having said that.. I think Manaea is a decent bounce back candidate. He was a nice pitcher for the A’s for some time.
Why do you think it’s ego? Value guys can be difference makers.
@Chipsss
I’m curious, how does his 9/360 offer to Judge, fit in with your sneering characterization of the man?
Because Aaron Judge sure is a value guy
Manea would be a terrible get for the Giants. They don’t need another #5 starter. I hope this story is just more rumor fluff.
Why
Probably the same reason they were interested in Cobb and Rodon and Wood and Desclafani and Gausman and Tyler Anderson and so on… They probably see some adjustments they can make to get him back to being a quality starter.
Maybe so, but from what I see that’s a lot to chew.
You left out Aaron Sanchez and Matt Boyd, 2 more recent gambles that didn’t work out.
When you’re trying to sign Judge you don’t also dip into the bargain bin.
If the Giants do sign Manea or someone of his ilk it means they’re not spending big money this off season.
The Giants paid practically nothing for Sanchez and Boyd. And I’m sure they’re happy with a 75% success rate on reclamation projects.
I will disagree with you on those two guys. Aaron Sanchez was not even pitching bad at all, especially for a #5 starter, but he got hurt and essentially lost his job to Logan Webb. Matthew Boyd was a zero risk signing who was on the IL all year, didn’t hurt the team at all and actually netted the Giants a couple prospects at the deadline.
I fully expect Zaidi to go big on at least one no-brainer position player, but based on the last few years, I also have a lot of confidence in his ability to find pitchers who are low-cost but provide high-value.
Manea is nowhere close to the others in quality that you mentioned — even Anderson who was awful with the Giants. This would be a terrible signing.
Without the benefit of hindsight, I would have much preferred the giants to sign Manaea over Gausman or Cobb or Wood or Desclafani in their respective contract years. Not saying Manaea is better than these guys, but those dudes were in rough shape when the Giants knocked on their doors for the first time.
Adding pitching depth is critical. Right now their #5 starter is Junis, and whatever you think about Manaea, he’s definitely an upgrade there. I agree that they need a better body in the rotation if they’re going to compete next season, which is why I doubt Manaea is the only pitcher they sign, and even then it’s only if they get him on a low-cost one year deal.
Are the cubs in on Manaea?
When does Logan Webb get paid?
I believe he’s first-time arbitration eligible next year and he’s due to be a free agent in 2026
Hopefully they sign him. Signed a Padres fan.
Manaea only pitched badly with the padres. A lot of potential there
Manaea was basically only bad in San Diego. He’s not the first pitcher to go there and start pitching badly.
I hope his market stays cold and the Cards can snatch him up.
Definitely prefer Manaea or maybe Syndergaard over Taillon or Walker if we’re talking about those middle of the pact remaining arms.
I believe the headline misspelled Manaea instead of R O D O N
It’s always concerning when a pitcher struggles in one of the most pitcher friendly parks in the majors. Are they thinking about offering him a 1-year pillow contract, or a 2 or 3 year deal with incentives at a reasonable AAV? Should be interesting.
He’s a buy low guy who just had 6 pretty decent years in Oakland. If pitchers wants to turn their careers around they come to San Francisco.
Why won’t they get Judge an Correa, thrush have the money.
tjey will make him an allstar and trade him at the deadline for a lot. that is what they intended to do with rodon but they were still in the chase so they got an extra pick.
Would be happy having Manea join the fray if it’s a relatively buy low situation. Seems like a great reclamation project for someone who has talent but coming off a down year. Giants have had great success with similar projects recently..
Bdawg22 — Enough with the “reclamation projects.” Manea is so so overrated.
Manaea is definitely overrated. He’s a 4.05 ERA pitcher, he’s barely above a .500 record pitcher, he’s at best a solid back of the rotation starter….
I mean, he may very well get like $14M-$20M a season no matter what.
I’d sign him to 2 years/$27M w/ a $2M buyout on a $18M option or something…
Manaea is not overrated. Were he considered an ace, a #2, or even a #3, then he would be. But he’s correctly rated as slightly above average back end starter.
He had a 107 ERA+ for the first 6 years of his career. 2022 appears to be an outlier. When there’s that big a difference in numbers there’s usually some reason, like an injury, not severe enough to put him on the IL, but enough to suppress his numbers.
I don’t hate this if they can get him on a one-year deal, or a cheap two-year deal. I’d much rather have Rodon and/or a Bassit/Senga type, but Manea could be another buy-low reclamation project that has a floor as an innings eater.
If the Giants want to make a play for Ohtani next year and extend Webb, I can stomach Manea being the main rotation addition this year — especially if they nab Judge or Correa. Otherwise, I’ll finally start to agree with the whiny Giants fans who lament their lack of spending; it was one thing when they had $180M payrolls with underperforming mid-30’s veterans, but it’s another thing with the lack of commitments on the roster at this point
I see the Giants signing Manea and Syndegaard and they both end up having career years.
Can the Red Sox please sign a decent pitcher…like wtf!!??
He just fell apart in the 2nd half of last year. I was hoping the Padres would bring him back and try to get him pitching like he did prior to the break. He’s a reclamation project no question. A little touch up and a little paint…
They’ll sign Manea and Syndergaard
and both will somehow have career years.
Crazy how quickly his stock dropped. He was one of the hottest arms on the trade market a year ago.
“Mid-tier” is an extremely generous way to put it.
NOOOOOO!!! Get Bassitt!!!!
I was hoping the Pirates would be in on him. Must want a fair market deal.