Angels Predicted to Sign Top Free Agent Pitcher in $72 Million Blockbuster Deal

Maren Angus-Coombs | Nov 21, 2024

Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images

About two weeks ago, 13 MLB free agents received a one-year, $21.05 million qualifying offer. They had until 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday to make their decision.

Unsurprisingly, most of those players turned down the offer, leaving them free to negotiate with any team willing to make the best deal.

That included New York Mets left-handed pitcher Sean Manaea.

Manaea is expecting a solid payday in free agency, and the veteran lefty’s appeal to a variety of potential teams may have just gone up.

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The lefty, who turned down the Mets' one-year, $21.05 million qualifying offer before Tuesday's deadline, had one of his best seasons in the majors. Tying his career-high with 32 starts, he finished 12-6 with a 3.47 ERA and 1.084 WHIP over 181.2 innings. He also came through in the postseason, posting a 2.65 ERA and 17 strikeouts across 17 innings.

Surprisingly, Zachary Rymer of Bleacher Report has linked Manaea to the Los Angeles Angels and predicted a contract of four years, $72 million.

"He's a far cry from the likes of Corbin Burnes, Max Fried and Blake Snell atop this year's list of free-agent pitchers, and he may well settle for an AAV a couple of million bucks below the one-year offer he just declined," Rymer wrote. "But he should be able to get a four-year deal with a total value triple what he rejected.

"At a $15M-$16 million AAV price point, Manaea could make sense for a contender like Baltimore or Detroit. But going all-in on a guy in his mid-30s who just had the best season of his career feels like an Angels thing to do."

Manaea went from being considered "not good enough to start for the Giants" to emerging as a surprising ace for the Mets, highlighted by a strong first three postseason starts before a tough finish against the Dodgers in the NLCS.

In an unexpected twist, the former Mets starter appeared on the NL Cy Young Award ballot Wednesday, earning a fifth-place vote from Nobuhiro Saito, a Los Angeles Dodgers beat writer for Nikkan Sports News, per Yahoo! Sports.

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