Mets left-hander Sean Manaea stepped up in a big way last season, becoming the reliable rotation stalwart the team needed in the middle of a tight battle for the postseason, and becoming a breakout star in October. The decision to lower his arm slot on his fastball has been well-documented, but there was another pitch that proved impactful during the second half of the 2024 season, and especially in the postseason: the changeup.
Manaea has always thrown a changeup, but after he added a sweeper in the middle of 2023 while with the San Francisco Giants, he began to rely on the pitch more heavily at the start of 2024. The changeup took a back seat. That trend continued throughout the season and he didn’t have as much of a need for the changeup, especially against left-handed hitters. He threw it only about 12% of the time last year, down from 17% in 2023 and nearly 25% in 2022 and in the earlier years of his career.
But Manaea started increasing the changeup usage in August. It was key in two big wins over the Baltimore Orioles and Arizona Diamondbacks late in the month, the latter of which helped the Mets clinch the tiebreaker over Arizona, which eventually secured the team a Wild Card berth.
Manaea is continuing his work at Driveline and Diesel Optimization in Tampa this winter with the hopes of improving the changeup.
“It can be great at times, and then at times it’s kind of like good,” Manaea said earlier this week on a Zoom. “The more I could have it be great, the better off I’ll be.”
A changeup has to be great. If it’s not, it’s a batting practice ball. It has to be thrown from the same angle as a fastball in order to fool the hitter into getting him to swing through the zone before the ball enters it. Some pitchers have movement on it, like new Yankees reliever Devin Williams, but precision is key.
Manager Carlos Mendoza regularly lauded the effectiveness of the pitch. It was effective because of how and when he used it. In previous years, he relied on his changeup as a putaway pitch. Last year, he used it earlier in at-bats against right-handed hitters. Manaea used the pitch to set up a strikeout of Bryce Harper in the NLDS, a gamble against a left-handed hitter that paid off.
As Manaea prepares for spring training, he’s working on refining the pitch, citing a desire for consistency.
“Experimenting is cool and it’s kind of like what the offseason is for, just to try new things,” Manaea said. “At the end of the day, I like, once the season starts and spring training starts, then I guess you can really test those kinds of things. And then you kind of get a feel for it, if it’s like, really working and if it feels good.”
Manaea, who will be 33 on Feb. 1, loves to experiment with pitches, grips and delivery during the season and has found a willing coach to help him in Mets pitching coach Jeremy Hefner. The “constant tinkering” doesn’t always lead to a pitch he’ll end up throwing in a game, but it serves a purpose in that he’s continually searching for ways to improve. It’s a reason why the Mets felt comfortable giving him a three-year contract worth $75 million.
Manaea rebuilt his confidence in San Francisco in 2023. In 2024, he remade his arsenal. Now that he knows he’ll be in the same place with the same coaches and organizational culture for the next three years, he can keep building off of those two seasons.
“I was happy where I was, as far as allowing myself the confidence to go out there and just throw the ball well, but I knew the feeling was that I could improve,” he said. “And, you know, after I found that feeling, it was just like, ‘Oh, like, this is it. This is something I know that feels good. So let’s just lean into that.’ And then from there, then it just kind of took off.”
