Mets left-hander Sean Manaea started the season on the 15-day injured list due to a right oblique strain but he’ll need more time than that to rejoin the club. Manager Carlos Mendoza today told reporters, including Tim Healey of Newsday, that the southpaw suffered a setback in his rehab. He got a platelet-rich plasma injection and will be shut down for another two weeks. Even if he’s healthy after that shutdown period, he’ll need a full ramp-up after that, meaning the best-case scenario is a return in late May or early June.
That’s obviously less than ideal news for the Mets. Manaea gave them 32 starts last year with a 3.87 earned run average. He logged 181 2/3 innings with a 24.9% strikeout rate and 8.5% walk rate. The club liked his performance enough to re-sign him via a three-year, $75MM deal, though with some notable deferrals.
So far, they’ve received nothing for that investment. Manaea was diagnosed with his oblique injury in late February and missed the entire spring. He’s already missed a few days of the regular season and his absence will extend for several more weeks.
He’s one of several starters currently on the shelf. Christian Scott had Tommy John surgery in September of last year and will most likely miss the entire 2025 season. Frankie Montas is out with a lat strain and still isn’t throwing. Paul Blackburn also started the season on the injured list due, in his case due to right knee inflammation.
The Mets have started the season with Clay Holmes, Tylor Megill, Griffin Canning and David Peterson starting the first four contests. Kodai Senga is scheduled to start tonight. That rotation will have to do for the time being, as it doesn’t appear any of Manaea, Montas or Blackburn are close to a return.
If another injury should pop up before anyone in that group can make it back, Justin Hagenman is on the 40-man roster. Prospects like Brandon Sproat and Blade Tidwell aren’t yet on the roster but are pitching in Triple-A to start this year.
One small silver lining of Manaea’s delay is that the Mets could now transfer him to the 60-day injured list, as such a move would still allow him to be activated in late May. That will give the club an extra 40-man roster spot to use on selecting a player from the minors or perhaps grabbing someone off waivers. Their 40-man count is currently at 38, however, so they won’t need to make a call on Manaea until they make a few more roster moves.
Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images
Code Blue!
thanks for 2024 but mets never should have re signed him
especially not for 75mil $
Agreed. He’s bounced around for a reason. And the one issue I have with Stearns is cheating out on the pitching when you are investing dollars on your offense. The Mets could’ve easily let Alonso walk and invest those dollars on Burns. They had a backup plan for Alonso.
flaherty was widely avlb and only signed for 35mil
mets gave that much to garbage montas
Your Flaherty remarks are completely out of context, to the point of being inaccurate. Flaherty was asking for a long term deal at big dollars, and was not available for his eventual signing price. No one expected him to be available that long, or to sign for such a low price. He priced himself as a premium pitcher when he, to, has some ups-and-downs on his record. If the Mets had given him 6/$150 like he was asking, you’d be bashing them for that.
The Montas signing was highly questionable, and a definite overpay. but at the point of his signing, that is what mediocre pitching was getting paid.
Lance Lynn coming out of retirement! They can pay him in sandwiches.
“At the time of his signing.” That was the first problem. His signing. They should’ve waited. Better yet, not sign Alonso, Manaea or Montas and instead toss their dollars at Burnes and Fried. Other than the extra 5 years, Fried is only 2.5M more on average than Manaea. Sure, he gets injured, but so did Manaea.
Burns DID NOT want to play on the East Coast. He would have been minimum a 250+MM investment and if he didn’t work out you would be right back on here saying Mets shouldn’t have paid that much for Burns. It’s easy to criticize with the benefit of hindsight.
Burnes was never going to be available to the Mets at any price. AZ did not even pursue Burnes. Burnes had his agent contact AZ. Because that’s where he wanted to play. And he took less money to play there.
Suddenly Blackburn getting healthy takes on new urgency
This is what happens when you don’t sign an actual ACE and try to cheap up your starting rotation. Still think mini market Stearns is good at his job because news flash he stinks!
Good point, no aces ever get injured
They got a pretty solid rotation
Who was the ace they missed out on?
They signed Soto for 750 millions
Why are you upset?
If you need an arm with rotation experience, he’s in your bullpen. Buto. Yes?
That’s a choice, might not be needed. Have Holmes, Peterson, Canning, Megill, and Senga. That’s five. Blackburn also started throwing yesterday and could be back soon. There’s plenty of starter options available now. As a long shot, they also have Tidwell and maybe Sproat later in the season (depending on how they pitch).
The Mets were planning on vacillating between a 5- and 6-man rotation depending on the schedule. On 4/11 they start a stretch of 13 games with no days off, followed by another 13-game stretch. Will Blackburn be back in time? Maybe, we still don’t know.
Unless there is an urgent issue, I believe they would go to Butto and Krasnick beforre delving into the minors. And this early in the season, I suspect they would then try calling up Hagenman and Waddell before turning to the youngsters.
Oblique issues can be really tricky for pitchers so it’s smart of them to be extra cautious with his rehab and only bring him back when it feels 100%. The biggest issue is the lack of depth for the Mets. If one more SP goes down, they will struggle to put 5 reliable pitchers in their rotation and will burnout their bullpen. With Manea out until late May / early June and with Montas not even throwing yet, the Mets will need to keep the rest of their starters healthy somehow if they hope to stay in the NL East race. Out of the Top 3 NL East teams, the Mets have the worst starting pitching staff, so the are going to need a lot of offense to win games in the first 2+ months. Soto now becomes even more important to the Mets as does the need for Alonso to return to form and hit 40-50 HRs for them. They can do it, but it will tough. Cohen doesn’t seem to want add any expensive veterans right now, but if they are in it at the all-star break and still need pitching, he might be able to find $20M+ to add reinforcements. It should be a fun race in the NL East this year.
@Jurrassic Carl “actual ACE”..Weren’t you here around this time last year saying the Mets couldn’t compete with the better teams?
Your handle seems very familiar and what happened last year, Carl? The Mets came one series away from winning the NL Pennant and only the juggernaut Dodgers prevented this from happening.
Just so you know, everyone’s a “genius” in hindsight and after one week of the baseball season. And I’m certainly not a homer Mets fan either.
Oh, here we go again with the “one series away”. for the Mets. The Mets were also the last team in MLB to make the playoffs and were one pitch away from losing in the wildcard series, if you want to play semantics like that.
Mets are a mess
I wonder where the Mets fans are that were telling me the rotation was set because Stearns was a genius, and I am stupid. I feel smart right now!
Yeah you losers are fully inhaling your own farts because Manaea is out for 2 more weeks.
Enjoy your victory lap you deplorable apes
Always remember, you can’t spell mets without LOL in front …
Chucky you’re braindead and jersey is a garbage heap
How about the Jets, Chucky?
@Piazza..”Yeah you losers are fully”…Let them have their fun, after one week of the extremely long baseball season. Tell them to check back in 6-8 weeks and we’ll see where all these teams they stand.
The amateurs, wannabees and beginners that read a lot into the first 4 or 5 games of the extra long baseball season, will soon find out that baseball is not necessarily like some of the other major sports.
In the NFL 3 straight losses is catastrophic and virtually ends your season. But not baseball, where they play 162.
This from a guy who watches Mets & Yankees 4x per week, but doesn’t root for them.
How about not putting NFL stuff on a baseball blog?
Baseball is not the NFL! The only ones who don’t understand that are Noo Yawk Sportsfans playing Sportsball Mashup.
PiazzaParty: You COULD be right re Chucky being “braindead” and jersey being “a garbage heap”. However, Chucky’s comment is 100% correct.
Not enjoying Manea being out two more weeks. Enjoying you having to eat crow after you were such an arrogant b-hole about the rotation depth. I am thoroughly enjoying that!
“@larkraxm those are the same Met fans that was also saying how “fantastic” the bullpen is when it is clearly one of the worst in baseball”
Clearly? Is it clear to people without psychosis?
Provide one example or delete your account and throw your phone in the toilet
Shocking
Mets pitching has been good so far. Starters and bullpen. Bats came alive yesterday, before that they’ve been the only issue so far this season.
Mets are gonna Met
Loser energy
Small d energy..like Polar Petey
Totally unacceptable
Smart teams should redefine what an “ace” is—instead of just pure dominance, an “ace” should be someone who guarantees 180+ innings. Because in today’s game, availability is becoming just as valuable as ability.
A Mets thread comment section will always turn into a Looney Tune episode LMAO. I love it. Keep it going, and to my fellow Mets fans… why get baited so easy?
Stearns has Bartolo ready to sign