Sean Manaea redemption tour continues, 3 NY Mets players who must join him

Sean Manaea, here are your flowers. Another strong outing from him on Sunday in a string of good ones have made this hinted redemption tour a real thing. Since moving to the starting rotation, Manaea has made 11 starts and come away with a 3.50 ERA. His masterful 7 innings and 11 strikeouts on Sunday solidified a trend that maybe he has a lot left to offer in the role he was signed to fill.

Manaea isn’t alone on the Mets roster as a guy in need of a strong finish. Easy to forget at times because he gets overshadowed by the excellent young kids or the extremely bad performances this year, Manaea is kind of doing exactly what we should have expected him to all along. He’s no ace, but much like 2024, he has gotten stronger as the year went along.

We can probably remove his name from the list of players the Mets should try to dump this offseason as they might just go on the hunt to immediately replace him. Financially, he doesn’t meet the demands. Statistically, we can’t ask for much more than what he is offering.

Declaring himself eligible to contribute at high level next season, we should be hopeful these other Mets are able to join him.

These Mets need to join Sean Manaea on his quest to have a big finish to 2026

1) Bo Bichette

It’s no certainty Bo Bichette is back with the Mets in 2026, however, if we expect him to walk away from $55.3 million ($42 million on the luxury tax) he’d be taking a bold risk. A strong finish to his season might have teams considering a new deal with him. He can also get a redo and maybe play his way into an even bigger contract. He won’t turn 29 until early March of next year. Free agency can wait.

Bichette has shown hints of being his Toronto Blue Jays’ self. A lack of consistency is what has doomed his season from turning around completely. Popping off a few more extra base hits than he has this year, we'll also take 5-hit days like he had on Sunday.

2) Marcus Semien

How good does Marcus Semien need to end the year? The production he has put together at the plate is kind of what we should have always believed he was able to do all along. Enough power to hit 15-20 home runs with a batting average that’ll flirt with reaching .230 is on-par with what he had been doing with the Texas Rangers. The defensive metrics. That part of his game seems more likely to do a 180 than the offense.

With an OPS under .600 as recently as July 25th, nobody is about to offer an apology letter to Semien or David Stearns for how this year has gone. Semien is a declining and aging player whose 2027 and 2028 seasons could get extremely ugly. Understanding he’ll be here and probably left as a bottom three hitter in the order even in a lineup where the best players aren’t available, we need to see Semien put together good numbers to end the year and at least give us a little bit of hope that next year is better.

3) Devin Williams

No, we don’t need Jorge Polanco to go on a tear in the final weeks. In fact, I’d advise against it. The last thing we need is for David Stearns to believe the injury was the issue. The Mets must realize they need more offensive firepower. It’s Devin Williams, locked into at least a setup role at the bare minimum, we need to see clean innings for the rest of the year.

Williams was rumored to be the originally intended setup man for the Mets this year with a plan to re-sign Edwin Diaz. As poorly as that could have ended up, it suggests Stearns would at least have an open enough mind to demote Williams to an 8th inning role while adding a better closer. Although the Mets never made a switch in-season to swap him with Luke Weaver, a lot of that probably had to do with stabilizing Weaver’s trade value while testing Williams as much as possible. We know Williams is coming back and should at least have enough confidence they’ll find a Weaver or some additional closer insurance.

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