LOS ANGELES -- Sean Manaea, the Mets’ top starter last year who has yet to pitch this season, is about to make significant progress in his recovery from a right oblique strain.
Manaea will begin a Minor League rehab assignment Friday at High-A Brooklyn, marking his first game action since last year’s postseason. The left-hander is slated to throw around 35 pitches in the start.
From there, Manaea will spend several weeks building up his pitch count to a full starter’s workload. He remains on track to debut in late June or early July.
Last year, Manaea established himself as the Mets’ ace, going 12-6 with a 3.47 ERA over 32 starts. After dropping his arm angle in late July to mimic Braves ace Chris Sale, Manaea produced a 3.09 ERA over his final 12 outings. He went on to post a 2.65 ERA over his first three playoff starts before faltering against the Dodgers in Game 6 of the National League Championship Series.
After the season, the Mets re-signed Manaea to a three-year, $75 million contract. He has yet to pitch for them since signing that deal.
Good news on Vientos
An MRI taken Wednesday in New York revealed that Mark Vientos is dealing with a low-grade strain of his right hamstring. Mets trainers will treat him for 10-14 days until he’s symptom-free, at which point he will restart baseball activities.
That’s a more optimistic timeline than many feared for Vientos when he pulled up lame in the 10th inning of Monday’s win over the Dodgers. It’s possible Vientos could return before the end of June.
“A guy goes down the way he did, you expect the worst,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “But once he went through all the testing, talking to the trainers -- you hate to see him go down at any time, but the fact that they’re telling us it’s low-grade, it’s good news.”
For as long as Vientos is sidelined, Brett Baty and Ronny Mauricio will share reps at third base, while Mauricio, Starling Marte and Jared Young will split time at DH.
A breakout player for the Mets last season, Vientos was slashing .230/.298/.380 in 53 games before his injury.