3 NY Mets free agents we should be most confident will be back in the New York Groove

2) Sean Manaea

Mets fans learned to love Sean Manaea last year. It wasn’t always such a great relationship. During early parts of his 2024 season, Manaea was wild. His outings were short. He was one of several starting pitchers speculated about getting moved at the trade deadline in exchange for some relievers. A huge finish to the year managed to completely change his perception among fans. Now viewed as someone worth bringing back and maybe even paying a little overvalue to retain, we should believe enough that this isn’t the last we’ve seen of Manaea in Queens.

Manaea also happens to carry the qualifying offer penalty. Certainly less attractive in terms of ability than players like Corbin Burnes and Max Fried who have the same QO penalties if signed, the advantage with Manaea is he’ll have an asking price much lower than those two in both total amount and AAV. He’s a good fallback plan for a team who might not be willing to go to the levels of Burnes or Fried.

Because the Mets happen to have a remaining vacancy in their rotation to go with a clear need to better the top end of it, a return should be in David Stearns’ plans. Did we really just spend a full season getting that much out of him only to see Manaea walk away?

The best choice for the Mets other than Roki Sasaki (opportunities like him are unique), bringing back Manaea is the right call to make.