Mets Have Interest in Sean Manaea, Hyun-Jin Ryu

As the New York Mets continue their hunt for starting pitching, two names I’ve heard connected to them are left-handers Hyun-jin Ryu and Sean Manaea.

Ryu, 36, is coming off a 2023 season where he posted a 3.46 ERA over 52 innings in 11 starts for the Toronto Blue Jays. The left-hander returned from Tommy John surgery in August. Ryu’s last full season came in 2021, when he had a 4.37 ERA for the Blue Jays in 31 starts. He was great the year before in the Covid-shortened season with a 2.69 ERA that helped him finish third in the AL Cy Young voting. His best season came in 2019 when he finished second in the NL Cy Young voting after posting a 2.32 ERA in 29 starts for the Dodgers.

Ryu has a 3.27 ERA over his 1055 big league innings after starting his career in Korean Professional Baseball. A key part of Ryu’s success has been his plus-control, his career 5.4 BB% is fantastic and he posted a 6.3 BB% last season.

Manaea, 31, worked in a variety of roles for the San Francisco Giants in 2023. The former first round pick had a 4.82 ERA as a starter and a 4.18 ERA as a reliever. It was a tale of two seasons for Manaea, as he posted a 7.96 ERA in his first eight outings of the season and then finished the season with a 3.44 ERA over his last 29 outings, including a 2.25 ERA in four starts to close out the year.

Overall, Manaea had a 4.44 ERA, 3.90 FIP, and his 25.7 K% was tied for the second-best of his career. The increased strikeouts certainly came from a sizeable velocity boost that saw his four-seamer average 93.6 mph in 2023 after he averaged only 91.3 mph on the pitch in 2022. The effectiveness of his sweeper (.140 opponents BA) also played a key role in Manaea’s 2023 success.

The lefty had his best season in 2021 with the Oakland A’s when he posted a 3.91 ERA in a career-high 32 starts.

Early in the offseason, David Stearns and company signed starter Luis Severino to a one-year deal and later acquired starter Adrian Houser (along with outfielder Tyrone Taylor) in a trade from the Brewers. The Mets did bid 12-years, $325 million for Yoshinobu Yamamoto before he signed with the Dodgers, and also reportedly made an offer to starter Lucas Giolito before he recently signed with the Red Sox for two-years, $38.5 million.

The Mets current rotation looks like Kodai Senga, José Quintana, Severino, Houser, and one from the group of Tylor Megill, Joey Lucchesi, and José Butto.

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