Sean Manaea has left the NY Mets with no other choice

The New York Mets are running out of time, games, and patience. Enter Sean Manaea: once a starter with a paycheck and a plan, now more like a guest at the bullpen party he wasn’t invited to. With six games left before the postseason curtain rises, the Mets can’t afford a man who treats high-leverage innings like a casual stroll. Some experiments are better left on the lab bench.

Manaea’s arm, for reasons no one can sugarcoat, has stopped inspiring confidence. He’s been entrusted with starts yet delivered enough chaos to make a circus look organized. The solution is simple, if not slightly humbling: keep him in low-pressure innings, where his presence is more ornamental than critical. In a playoff sprint, the Mets can’t gamble on the guy who’s made trust optional.

The Mets can’t trust Sean Manaea as the playoffs hang in the balance

When Manaea first returned from the injured list in mid-July, he looked like the kind of midseason addition that could steady the Mets’ rotation. Over his first four outings, he allowed just four earned runs in 17.1 innings while striking out 22. It felt like the second-half surge of 2024 had carried over, and for a brief moment, the Mets had reason to believe they’d found lightning in a bottle again. That spark, however, fizzled fast.

Since August 4, he has been nothing short of a liability. In 35.2 innings, he’s carried a 7.82 ERA while coughing up 45 hits and six walks. The numbers are ugly enough on their own, but the collateral damage has been even worse. he hasn’t reached the fifth inning in five of his last nine starts, turning every one of his outings into an early bullpen fire drill. For a team scratching and clawing for October baseball, that’s an unsustainable formula.

The Amazins have already been forced into creativity, implementing a piggyback scenario with Manaea and Clay Holmes. The plan is as uninspiring as it sounds: Manaea starts, struggles, and Holmes arrives to rescue the game from sinking before the middle innings. That’s not a strategy, it’s triage. Even then, it hasn’t stopped Manaea from putting the Mets in a hole before the reinforcements can even unpack their gloves.

His latest outing against the Nationals felt like the breaking point. With the Mets clinging to a one-game lead in the Wild Card race, Manaea was tasked with holding the line. Instead, he lasted just three innings, surrendered three runs, and walked away with the loss. Now, the Mets don’t even have that slim lead anymore, and their postseason hopes are dangling by a thread. With six games left and no safety net, the club can’t afford to hope Manaea figures it out—they need arms they can trust right now.

The Mets don’t have the luxury of patience or misplaced loyalty. Sean Manaea has pitched his way out of trust, and the only role left for him is in the shadows of low-leverage bullpen duty. That’s not punishment, it’s survival. With the season hanging in the balance, every inning is precious, and the Mets can’t afford to let Manaea turn October dreams into September regrets.