Reese Kaplan -- Monday's Loss to Seattle Has a Mets Silver Lining

For those of you who had the pleasure of seeing a seemingly rejuvenated Sean Manaea in five rock solid innings against the Mariners on Monday, you had to have several thoughts fighting for space in your Mets fan head at the same time.  Was this for real?  Had he finally gotten both healthy enough and determined enough to show us the kind of pitcher he was when physically well and regularly playing during the 2024 season?  Not to be outdone, failed starter turned long reliever David Peterson also looked like a reborn southpaw for four impressive innings as well. 

For the armchair General Manager (as if the Mets actually employed one) a different thought may have entered your head.  Can he do it again, not just to help the Mets remain competitive in game outcomes but more importantly a few good games in a row will put Manaea back onto the hypothetical trade acquisition lists for potentially 29 other teams.  Think about it.  If he pitched to a 3.50 ERA over the next month you’d think the overpriced and untradeable Manaea would suddenly become a player other teams might want to see in their uniform.

Now what does that mean for the Mets? 

Well, the team is on the hook for the remainder of his $75 million three year contract that made Scott Boras’ day when it was signed, it’s structured in such a way with deferrals that don’t kick in until long past Manaea’s playing career ends. So instead of a remaining share of $25 million for 2026 and again for 2027 the deferral is for $23.75 million being paid out later and thus making his current and 20227 payroll hit not nearly as bad as it seems when you frame it as $25 million per season.

With Christian Scott, Nolan McLean, Jonah Tong, Zach Thornton, Clay Holmes, Kodai Senga, Tobias Myers and free agent to be David Peterson you could certainly suggest the Mets have the depth (though not all of it healthy) to allow this type of trade to take place.  It’s pretty clear to anyone observing the Mets this season that October baseball for them is a spectator sport and not something requiring them to suit up and play games.  Consequently it might be shrewd to peddle a hopefully fully revitalized starter Manaea for whatever prospect package he can net to help for the future and to relieve some of the inflated payroll.

It’s all fantasy speculation which has a requirement that most definitely cannot be written in ink as of yet.  We all saw how Manaea did during year one of his new contract and then how he followed it up to begin year two.  It most definitely requires him to replicate the kind of game he had on Monday several times to make the prospective trade talk more feasible. Until then, still consider the lower priced and better metrics of Kodai Senga an easier sell with Freddy Peralta obviously at the top 3-5 pitchers any other club would covet.