NEW YORK — With their starting rotation in constant flux, the Mets are planning to temporarily move Sean Manaea to the bullpen. Manaea will be available out of the pen for the Mets in Sunday’s series finale with the Texas Rangers. If he’s not used on Sunday, the plan is for Manaea to piggyback off starter Clay Holmes in Tuesday’s series opener against the San Diego Padres.
Before Sunday’s game, Manaea acknowledged that he was available out of the bullpen and that he was informed of the plan to likely pitch in relief of Holmes on Tuesday.
The Mets have been figuring out their rotation on a turn-by-turn basis since promoting rookies Jonah Tong and Brandon Sproat in the past two weeks. They went with a six-man rotation the last time through, but with off days on the next two Mondays, they plan to go back to five to finish out the season.
For the rest of the upcoming series against the Padres, David Peterson would start on Wednesday, and Tong would follow on Thursday.
Manaea and Holmes could piggyback again the following turn through the rotation during a series against the Washington Nationals, with the lefty starting and the righty coming out of the pen that time.
Signed to a three-year, $75 million deal after fronting the Mets’ rotation into the NLCS last season, Manaea has had a rough encore. He missed the first three months of the season with oblique and elbow injuries, and he hasn’t performed close to the level he reached late last year. In 11 games (10 starts), Manaea owns a 5.76 ERA. The Mets are 3-7 when he starts. (They lost the other game he entered out of the pen, when he piggybacked with Holmes in his first appearance of the season in July.)
Manaea has pitched well for stretches in most of his outings; however, when he’s struggled, it’s often led to crooked numbers. In his first several starts back, those big numbers came in the middle innings. In the past two, it’s been early in the game.
Manaea’s strikeout rate (29.2 percent entering Sunday) is a career-best, and his walk rate (4.6 percent) is the best it’s ever been outside of the abbreviated 2020 season.
“I think Sean’s close,” pitching coach Jeremy Hefner said earlier this week. “There’s a lot more fastballs up in the zone. … That’s encouraging for me.”
During their eight-game losing streak, the Mets have received more than five innings from a starting pitcher four times. In the span, none of their starters have completed more than six innings.
Manaea entered the season as something of a co-ace along with Kodai Senga. The Mets optioned Senga to Triple A on Sept. 5. Barring the Mets placing anyone on the injured list, Senga is eligible to return on Sept. 20. The Mets, however, are giving Senga another start in Triple A after he allowed one run on three hits with no walks and eight strikeouts in six innings on Friday.
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