A week after the New York Mets lost starting pitcher Frankie Montas, who they signed in the offseason to a two-year, $34 million free agent contract, another key member of their starting rotation is now expected to miss opening day â and possibly several weeks more. Sean Manaea, a 33-year-old nine-year veteran who pitched 181 2/3 innings with a 3.47 ERA last season, re-signed with the Mets in December to a three-year, $75 million deal.
But now Manaea is gone as well, Mets manager Carlos Mendoza announced Monday according to a report by the team’s cable television outlet SNY. Manaea was diagnosed with a strained oblique muscle, an injury that can typically take about seven weeks to fully heal. That means the Mets will be without the projected top two pieces of their starting rotation at least until mid-April.
In addition, the Mets are relying for innings this season on converted reliever Clay Holmes, who has not started a Major League game since 2018 and never topped 70 innings pitched, and 32-year-old Japanese import Kodai Senga who started just one game for the Mets in 2024 due to a series of injuries.
Reunion With 2024 170-Inning Mets Starter Now Predicted
It seems clear that the Mets will need reinforcements in the starting rotation. And they need look no farther than a member of their 2024 rotation who put together a solid 3.75 ERA over 170 1/3 innings last year â but who was allowed to enter free agency without the Mets even extending him the predtermined $21.05 million qualifying offer.
Jose Quintana, a 36-year-old 13-year veteran whose career ERA of 3.74 is virtually identical to what he gave the Mets in 2024, remains one of 66 free agents still unsigned almost two weeks into spring training.
Following the revelation of Manaea’s injury on Monday morning, amNY executive sports editor Joe Pantorno suggested a Mets reunion with Quintana, which he called “logical to bolster the already-tested depth of the Metsâ stable of starting pitchers. …Slotting a veteran of his caliber toward the bottom of the rotation would suggest the presence of a stabilizing factor for a team whose rotation appears to be on remarkably shaky ground,” Pantorno wrote.
Quintana Shined in Postseason Early Rounds Last Year
Quintana has pitched for seven big league teams since breaking in with the Chicago White Sox in 2012. He divided 2022 between the Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Cardinals before becoming a free agent after that season and inking a two-year, $26 million deal with the Mets.
He played a key role in the Mets 2024 run to the National League Championship Series, starting one game each in the Wild Card Series against the Milwaukee Brewers and Division Series against the NL East pennant-winning Philadelphia Phillies. The native of Arjona, Colombia, pitched a combined 11 innings giving up a total of just one run (to the Phillies) in those games.
In the NLCS against the eventual World Series champion Dodgers, however, Quintana ran into the Los Angeles buzz saw, imploding for five runs in just 3 1/3 innings in his only start.
With Quintana still on the market, his price may be lower than the estimate offered by Spotrac, but that sports business site has projected his current market value at just under $16.6 million over a two-year contract â a deal the Mets should be willing to consider rather that simply hope that a promising 2025 season is not ruined by injuries to the starting rotation.
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