After NY Mets demotion, Sean Manaea proved his velocity drop excuse wasn’t legit

Sean Manaea has been, if nothing else, consistent both with his velocity and rationale for a slower-than-usual fastball. Throughout New York Mets spring training, he has stated he’ll start to bring the heat when the adrenaline of the regular season hits.

A lame excuse if there ever was one, Manaea disproved his reasoning by hitting 92mph in Monday’s intrasquad scrimmage.

One could argue the competitive fierceness of playing against your teammates in a game that doesn’t count is more adrenaline-fueled than one against players on opposing clubs. We also can’t ignore the fact this is Manaea’s first outing since getting demoted to the Mets bullpen. It’s a far clearer conclusion that the deletion from the Mets rotation deserves more credit for the uptick in velocity than the meaningfulness of the competition.

Adrenaline isn’t what will fuel Sean Manaea’s velocity

Hitting 92mph is barely cause for celebration. Last year, he averaged 91.7mph on his fastball. Getting there once is a positive sign the same way a 0.01% increase in the SP 500 is during a bear market.

At the same exact 12:33pm time stamp as his fastball brag on social media, the SNY Mets account shared Francisco Alvarez taking Manaea deep.

Manaea has had a weird preseason where the results are there. A 3.72 ERA in 9.2 innings is respectful. He also walked only 2 batters and struck out 9. Spring training for pitchers is about a lot more than what the numbers on the stat sheet say. The velocity drop was a grave enough sign for the Mets to move him from the rotation to begin the year. He’ll be piggybacked behind someone to begin the season, both Clay Holmes and Kodai Senga as the most logical choices.

Injuries, poor performances out of others, and something as simple as Senga actually needing that extra day of rest can all have the Mets shifting Manaea back into the rotation sooner than later. On a roster with Huascar Brazoban capable of giving them 2 innings regularly and Tobias Myers able to give them more, locking Manaea in as a reliever isn’t ideal even if it can become a dangerous weapon. The keyword there is “if.”