Sean Manaea, the New York Mets’ scuffling veteran southpaw, will not make his next scheduled start on Tuesday against the San Diego Padres. Instead, he will piggyback off Clay Holmes, who will toe the rubber in a vital series opener at Citi Field.
The Mets have shortened their rotation following a 16-game-in-16-day stretch that ended on Sunday with Pete Alonso’s walk-off home run snapping an eight-game losing streak. During that stretch, the Mets expanded to a six-man rotation, which featured the calling up of Jonah Tong and Brandon Sproat, along with the demotion of the struggling Kodai Senga to Triple-A.
With an opportunity to flex back to a five-man rotation, Manaea is the odd-man out, for now. The 33-year-old has been unable to find the stuff that made him a hero in the second half and the postseason last year after an oblique injury delayed his 2025 debut until July.
In 11 appearances, he is 1-3 with a 5.76 ERA and has allowed at least four earned runs in six of his last seven starts. He made 23 appearances out of the San Francisco Giants’ bullpen in 2023.
The Mets will hope that combining Holmes and Manaea could fuse the two into one good outing. Holmes has been unable to provide the length needed as of late, while he continues to exceed his previous career-high in innings pitched by more than double after transitioning from closer to starter. He has a 4.81 ERA since the start of August.
David Peterson, who has been wildly inconsistent as of late after garnering an All-Star selection in the first half, will be supported by the trio of Mets rookies in Tong, Sproat, and Nolan McLean — the latter continuing his brilliant MLB debut that has featured a 1.19 ERA across his first six career starts.
McLean and Sproat appear to be the only two locks for a three-man Wild Card Series rotation should the Mets hang on to the final postseason berth in the National League. Tong was ripped apart for six runs on Friday in the first inning by the Texas Rangers, but an all-rookie rotation is still very much on the table.
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