{"id":89432,"date":"2024-11-13T14:54:57","date_gmt":"2024-11-13T19:54:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=89432"},"modified":"2024-11-13T15:08:24","modified_gmt":"2024-11-13T20:08:24","slug":"sean-manaea-free-agent-profile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/11\/13\/sean-manaea-free-agent-profile\/","title":{"rendered":"Under-the-Radar Free Agent Starter Could Provide Value"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sean Manaea was having a strong season through mid-July and was on track to opt out of his contract. He had a 3.47 ERA in 32 starts overall and a 3.09 ERA in 12 starts after lowering his arm slot. That late-season success made it a slam dunk that Manaea would opt into free agency<\/a>. The decision isn’t a surprise, as he will likely reject the $21.05 million qualifying offer from the New York Mets. Manaea will seek a multi-year contract regardless if he returns to Queens.<\/p>\n

Sean Manaea Free Agent Profile<\/h2>\n

The two-year contract<\/a> he inked with New York came in his second free-agency foray. Since first reaching the open market in 2022, he’s signed a pair of two-year contracts with opt-outs after year one. Doing this shows Manaea’s willingness to bet on himself and that confidence he’ll land a long-term contract this offseason. Manaea pitched a career-high 182 2\/3 innings in the regular season while posting a 3.47 ERA. He issued walks at an 8.5% clip and avoided home runs with a 1.04 HR\/9.<\/p>\n

Manaea will be entering his age-33 season in 2025 and it’s fair to wonder how he might bounce back after such a big workload. It should be pointed out that Manaea has been durable throughout his nine-year career — eclipsing 144 innings in six of eight full seasons (the shortened 2020 season is not included). There’s also the question of whether Manae’s market will get a bit crazy.<\/p>\n

Beyond Corbin Burnes, Blake Snell, and Max Fried, the market for free-agent pitching has a steep drop. After those three, there\u2019s the high-upside Walker Buehler, Yusei Kikuchi, and Sean Manaea. With Manaea’s proven track record and ability to eat innings, he could attract interest from several potential suitors.<\/p>\n

Potential Suitors<\/h3>\n

Texas Rangers<\/h4>\n

The Rangers will need starting pitching with both Nathan Eovaldi and Andrew Heaney entering the free-agent market. Pairing someone with Jacob deGrom, and possibly Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker, makes Sean Manaea an ideal fit. Acquiring Manaea would provide a significant boost as the Rangers aim to contend in 2025. However, they will need to be prepared to invest financially.<\/p>\n

New York Mets<\/h4>\n

The prospect of re-signing Sean Manaea has sparked debate among Mets fans, with some concerns lingering about his long-term performance consistency. If the Mets decide to make a significant financial commitment to Manaea, it could have a ripple effect on their pitching rotation. Moreover, the terms of his potential deal could set a precedent for future free-agent signings within the organization.<\/p>\n

Complicating matters further is the uncertainty surrounding Luis Severino, who, like Manaea, is expected to decline the qualifying offer, leaving the Mets to navigate a pair of critical pitching decisions.<\/p>\n

Baltimore Orioles<\/h4>\n

The Orioles are actively exploring various free-agent options to strengthen their starting rotation. Max Fried and Blake Snell are considered ideal targets for acquiring a top-tier starter. Additionally, pursuing Sean Manaea as a primary rotation option could help the team achieve its goals. While Manaea may not be on the same level as Corbin Burnes, the best-case scenario for the Orioles would involve re-signing Burnes and adding an arm like Manaea to the roster. Although it\u2019s uncertain how feasible this plan is, stranger things have happened.<\/p>\n

Market Value Projection<\/h3>\n

Sportrac projects<\/a> that Manaea will land a four-year, $64 million contract in free agency. This projected deal bears a small resemblance to the four-year, $80 million contract<\/a> Eduardo Rodr\u00edguez signed with Arizona Diamondbacks. Notably, both pitchers have demonstrated the ability to log significant innings while maintaining a mid-rotation level of performance. The similarity in contract terms suggests that Manaea’s market value is closely aligned with that of Rodr\u00edguez. If Manaea indeed lands a contract in this range, it would represent a substantial investment by the signing team, underscoring the high demand for dependable starting pitchers in the open market.<\/p>\n

Main Photo: \u00a9 Benny Sieu-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sean Manaea was having a strong season through mid-July and was on track to opt out of his contract. He had a 3.47 ERA in 32 starts overall and a 3.09 ERA in 12 starts after lowering his arm slot. That late-season success made it a slam dunk that Manaea would opt into free agency. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3686,"featured_media":89546,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1071],"tags":[258,985,164,3075,259],"class_list":["post-89432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb","tag-baltimore-orioles","tag-eduardo-rodriguez","tag-new-york-mets","tag-sean-manaea","tag-texas-rangers"],"modified_by":"Matt Graves","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3686"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}