Sean Manaea had a frustrating 2025

After a second half in 2024 that Mets fans could dream on, Sean Manaea re-signed with the Mets on a three-year, $75 million contract. At the time, we praised this contract as a likely bargain, whether or not he could replicate the second half of ‘24 over the course of a full season. Even with some regression, the deal seemed fair and, based on the mechanical adjustments he made after Chris Sale spanked the Mets on July 25th, he seemed likely to have at least raised his floor, if nothing else.

Then 2025 came knocking.

First it was an oblique strain early in spring training. That injury lingered, as oblique injuries tend to do, which was followed up by loose bodies in his elbow causing discomfort. When Manaea made his first appearance of 2025, it was in relief on the day before the All-Star break, where he gave up just one earned run, while striking out seven, but taking the loss against the Royals.

For the rest of the season, it was up and down for Manaea. July was his best month in limited appearances; he tossed 17.1 innings, never giving up more than an earned run or fewer than four strikeouts in any game.

But August was ugly. Really, really ugly. In every start, he put up a crooked number of earned runs and, despite getting better strikeout numbers than he did in July, the Mets only won one of his starts in the month, the finale against the Phillies that saw him get bounced in the fifth but struck out eight and gave up just two earned runs.

September wasn’t much better, and the Mets demoted him to a bullpen role down the stretch, though his relief appearances went better than his starts did. He was effective when used in a piggyback game with Clay Holmes on September 16 versus the Padres where he went five and limited the Dads to just one run on four hits, no walks, and four strikeouts.

Overall, Manaea’s stat line was rough in 2025: 5.64 ERA across 60.2 innings, with an ERA+ of just 72, meaning he was 28% worse than league average that season.

Manaea has since downplayed the role that the loose body made in his struggles, and claims that he will not need surgery to remove it this offseason. If that is true, that’s good news for all parties, but if this is just kicking the can down the road and he’ll need to go under the knife mid-season, that decision will look especially frustrating when Manaea has to miss time to address the issue.

It seems entirely conceivable that Manaea’s 2025 campaign was marred by nagging injuries that never quite got sorted out. It is equally conceivable that the second half of 2024 was an aberration and that Manaea is in decline and will never have a 14 start stretch as good as his playoff push and first three post-season appearances last year.

Most likely, the truth is somewhere in the middle.