PORT ST. LUCIE — As the Mets inch closer to the regular season, the pitching staff is shaping up about as well as the team hoped, and maybe even better than some expected.
Luis Severino threw five innings in a minor league game Tuesday afternoon at Clover Park, throwing 85 pitches. Scouts who have seen Severino this spring echo what the Mets have said about Severino — that he looks elite once again.
“If everything goes well, it will be the first time in a long time that I’ve been healthy the whole spring training.”
Severino hasn’t been this healthy at the end of spring training since 2018.
And Sean Manaea, the left-hander who tossed five solid innings in the Grapefruit League nightcap against the St. Louis Cardinals has never felt this good about his pitches at this point in spring training.
“That’s very encouraging,” Manaea said after the Mets defeated the Cardinals 3-1 at Clover Park. “I’m feeling really good and we’re in a really great spot, so just keep doing that and keep building up. We’ll be in a good spot for the opening series.”
Manaea will make one last start Monday in Tampa in an exhibition game against the Yankees. He held the Cardinals to one run on four hits, walked one and struck out six. The one run came in the second inning when Iván Herrera led off the inning with a triple. Manaea then got Thomas Saggese swinging before allowing a single to César Prieto that scored Herrera. The defense helped him limit the damage with Prieto later getting caught stealing to end the inning.
He threw 69 pitches with his hardest being clocked at 96. Manaea used all of his pitches but the only changeup he threw was the one Herrera hit for a triple.
“The slider was probably my worst pitch. It was like the best and worst,” Manaea said. “There were some really good ones, and then there were some I didn’t throw as well as I thought I could have. Other than that, everything was pretty good. All the fastballs [were good]. The one changeup I threw there was a triple. It still felt good, but the location was a little bit off.
“Other than that, everything was pretty good.”
Mendoza, however, liked his “heavy” fastball.
“He attacked the hitters,” Mendoza said. “For some reason, I thought [St. Louis hitters] were picking it up, but he kept throwing it. Overall, another solid outing for him.”
In each spring outing, Manaea has worked on different sequencing with different pitchers. He knows exactly how he wants to use everything when the season starts. His velocity is good and the command has been as well.
The last outing will provide Manaea a chance to get one last tuneup before making his first start of the regular season.
“I definitely worked on different sequences that we haven’t actually named, but each outing has kind of had its own signature,” Manaea said. “I think today, it was a lot of fastballs. You get behind and still throw it, or get ahead of good guys with those pitches. I thought that was a really good job.”
One scout in attendance said Manaea has looked better than a back-end starter this spring. The same scout said Severino is “back.” On paper, the rotation doesn’t look especially deep this season, but there is a belief in the clubhouse that the pitching staff is better than people are giving them credit for.
The Mets have talked up their scouting staff and lauded the job of identifying undervalued talent. However, it’s also too early to tell if the rotation will be a strength of the team next season. Spring training results don’t always translate to the regular season. Plus, this is the Mets, after all. Disaster is always lurking.
But as the team enters the final week of Grapefruit League play, the pitching staff is looking promising.
