It didn’t take Sean Manaea long to rack up 8 strikeouts against the Washington Nationals on Thursday. Essentially on cruise control in his latest start for the New York Mets, trouble brewed thanks in part to hit by pitches, wild pitches, and some timely hitting by the Nationals.

Manaea exited early, after 4.2 innings, on a season-high 91 pitches. He was smooth to start until hitting an all-too-familiar wall mid-game for the Mets. His longest outing of the year was 5.2 frames against the Cleveland Guardians when he also gave up a season-high 5 earned runs.

The contagion hurting the Mets starters knows no mercy. Manaea has now pitched four straight duds in August. The Mets are 1-7 in his outings. Suddenly, his $25 million AAV for three seasons is looking dangerously like one of the worst buy-ins into a player who only a year ago was carrying the load of the rotation.

Sean Manaea is one of the biggest culprits for the Mets starting pitching woes

An 11th place Cy Young finish last year was a well-deserved accomplishment by Manaea who performed beyond his one-year deal with an option that he easily chose to bypass for another dip into free agency. He earned back the reputation he had early on in his career with the Oakland Athletics, putting together arguably the best season of his career.

David Stearns’ reputation with the Mets as a guy who could turn innocuous free agents into ace-material created by the year Manaea had. The way Manaea pitched in 2024 gave us all hope Griffin Canning wasn’t a DFA waiting to happen. Unfortunately, Manaea is following a similar trend to many others Stearns re-signed this offseason.

Jesse Winker’s lost season and the continued downfall of Ryne Stanek are horses of a different color. Each was signed to only a one-year deal and not meant to be nearly as important to the Mets as Manaea. His preseason injury that knocked him out of action practically the second half created a bad situation for the lefty. Now 7 starts back from the IL, we have enough of a sample to start drawing some conclusions. None we’d draw are good enough to make it onto the fridge.

Manaea’s issue has been after around three innings of work this season. ERAs are under 4.00 in each of the first three frames, it jumps to 6.43 in the fourth, 7.71 in the fifth, and 27.00 in the sixth. A lot of the conversation this season has been about Clay Holmes’ inability to give them quality innings beyond about four. Manaea is just as guilty.

The fourth inning was a weak one for Manaea last year, posting a 5.10 ERA. Things didn’t fall apart after, though. His 1.65 ERA in the fifth and still solid 4.15 ERA in the sixth would be exceptional to have right now.

Still able to change the narrative around, it’s beginning to feel more like last year’s version is locked up with Grimace, OMG, and late-inning rallies in a warehouse somewhere in Teaneck.