Grading every major Mets move on the road to the 2024 season

The Mets hope Driveline Baseball has increased Sean Manaea's stuff even more

This offseason, the Mets signed Sean Manaea to a two-year contract worth $28 million with an option out after the 2024 season. Manaea is coming from a season where he completed 117.2 innings between his roles as starter and reliever with the San Francisco Giants, where he posted an ERA of 4.44 with 128 strikeouts.

Despite pitching in a pitcher-friendly ballpark in 2023, advanced metrics and underlying stats show that we can expect reliable results with Manaea in 2024. In his 2023 off-season training at Driveline Baseball Manaea achieved impressive results, including an increase in almost three miles per hour on his fastball last season, with which he limited the damage to opponents by reducing one slugging allowed by this pitch.

But the development of its sweeper is perhaps one of the most relevant news in this pitcher. Through the use of this pitch, Manaea managed to limit opponents to a batting average of just .158 and a surprising slugging percentage of .184, generating a whiff%, that is, a swing and miss of 36.3%, an elite ratio in the league.

The advanced metrics and development of his sweeper can lead Manaea to be one of the best pitchers in the Mets' rotation this season, even improving his results from the previous season. There is risk in this signing due to the increase in batters' contact with pitches in Manaea's strike zone, but the gamble is worth it.