David Stearns Outlines Long-Term Plan for Sean Manaea

The New York Mets president of baseball operations offered his insight on the struggles of Sean Manaea and how the team will approach his usage this year.

Sep 28, 2025; Miami, Florida, USA; New York Mets starting pitcher Sean Manaea (59) delivers a pitch against the Miami Marlins during the first inning at loanDepot Park. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images | Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

As was announced last week, the New York Mets have made a decision on how they will use Sean Manaea to start the season.

In a somewhat surprising move, the club bumped the left-hander out of the rotation and into the bullpen with the intention of using him in a piggy-back role to start the year. This came after a difficult spring for Manaea where the veteran hurler struggled to crank his fastball up to his normal low-90s velocity.

While he touched 92 mph earlier this week in the team's intrasquad scrimmage, the pitch regularly hovered around the high-80s, giving real cause for concern. Only exacerbating this is Manaea entering his age-34 season, coming off of an injury-riddled 2025 campaign where he battled oblique and elbow injuries.

Mets Still Expect Sean Manaea to Make "A Lot of Starts" in 2026

Feb 19, 2026; Port St. Lucie, FL, USA; New York Mets pitcher Sean Manaea (59) poses for a photo during media day at Clover Park. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images | Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

But David Stearns remains confident that Manaea will be a big part of the Mets' success this time around, as the club president spoke out on Wednesday about how they will approach his usage to start the year and a plan for the rest of the season.

“We’ll kind of see exactly how it looks early in the season, but we expect Sean to be a big part of this team,” Stearns said. “We’re going to need Sean to be a big part of this team. He’s going to make starts for us. I would expect him to make a lot of starts for us."

While Stearns' belief that Manaea would make a lot of starts for the Mets in 2026 would not come as a surprise a few weeks ago, his latest struggles and the subsequent decision to move him to the bullpen have completely changed the scenario. Now, hearing the lack of concern from the top executive provides a good sense of the feeling in the room regarding their highest paid pitcher.

Stearns reiterated the sentiment that manager Carlos Mendoza and Manaea himself discussed after each outing, that the lefty would get his velocity back once "the lights turn on" and the fans are in the stadium.

“I think we saw some flashes of really good during spring, especially in the last couple of outings the secondary stuff played pretty well, the command of the secondary stuff was pretty sharp towards the end of spring," Stearns explained.

"The velocity is down a little bit. We still actually saw some swing-and-miss on the fastball even with lower velocity, so I think as we get into April here and as the lights turn on and he’s playing in front of tens of thousands of fans in games that matter, I think we’ll see the velocity tick up a little bit, and I think he’s going to be good for us.”

"It's low, but I feel good - I'm not concerned about it whatsoever. We get up to Citi Field, get some adrenaline going, it'll shoot back up."

Sean Manaea on his fastball velocity being under 90 MPH: pic.twitter.com/q44r7lAeW9

— SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) March 17, 2026

As Stearns points out here, Manaea has been able to generate swings-and-misses without his top velocity, which can be taken as an encouraging sign. In his final Grapefruit League outing, Manaea struck out four across four perfect innings. Besides, Manaea has never been a flamethrower and has always leaned on pitch control with strong secondaries to get batters out.

Much like Stearns, Manaea has asserted that he is, and will be a starting pitcher for the Mets this season. He called the experience "frustrating" but let it be known that his focus letting the "pitching do the work."

"I consider myself a starter. To not be that is frustrating. But at the end of the day, I'm going to let my pitching do the work in whatever capacity that is and go from there."

- Sean Manaea pic.twitter.com/kZ6OwlK1HJ

— SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) March 21, 2026

The Mets certainty didn't have an easy decision with Manaea, but his ineffective spring forced the issue. What made it easier to stomach is the built-in depth of what was supposed to be a six-man rotation that will now just feature the normal five arms. However, given the nature of health at the position and some unknowns within New York's staff, the team will likely need to lean on Manaea as a starter in some capacity this year if they want to be successful.

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