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Sean Manaea’s Arm Slot Tweak

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Sean Manaea of the New York Mets has enjoyed a successful bounce-back season after a few down years. Manaea finished the 2024 regular season with a 3.47 ERA after being in the mid to high 4 ERA mark the previous two seasons. On a Mets team lacking a clear-cut ace, Manaea stepped forward and was the most valuable pitcher by fWAR. While he was still effective for a large chunk of the season, he made an adjustment beginning on July 30th that unlocked a new level.

Sean Manaea’s Arm Slot Tweak

Arm Slot Adjustment

On July 30th, when he was pitching against the Minnesota Twins at home, Manaea twirled the best game of his season. He allowed no runs on two hits and a walk across 7 innings while striking out 11. The adjustment that coincided with the best game of his season. Lowering his arm slot.  Manaea has always had a sidearm-type delivery, but he began to lean into it even more. His release height prior his outing against the Twins usually sat around 5.6 feet. From that date forward, he began gradually dropping his slot and finished the final two months with around a 5.2-foot release height. There were slight deviations between his hard pitches and slow pitches, but not a big enough difference seemingly to provide a tall to hitters. Here are some of his performance indicators before and after the tweak:

March – July 30th July 30th – Present
ERA 3.74 3.09
FIP 4.18 3.35
xFIP 4.49 3.40
K-BB% 12.6% 22.3%
SwStr% 12.0% 14.2%
xwOBA .334 .257

It can be observed that his overall results, swing and miss, command, and quality of contact allowed all improved. Furthermore, his pitches graded out significantly better according to Stuff+, which takes into account release height in addition to other physical characteristics.  His overall Stuff+ improved from an 86 to a 95. Additionally, his command of his pitches from the lower arm slot improved with his Location+ improving from 95 to 100. Location+ adjusts for count and pitch type which judges a pitcher’s ability to throw pitches in an optimal location. He talked with sportswriter Laura Albanese about this adjustment he made and the deception it created for hitters along with how comfortable he felt with it here:

 

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Dominant Sinker

Sean Manaea’s patented pitch has been his sinker for much of his career.  This season, it has been one of the five best sinkers in baseball and a top 25 overall pitch by pitcher run value. Manaea has thrown his sinker 44.7% of the time this season and uses his sweeper off it.  He utilizes this combo effectively and creates an exceptional tunnel.  The sweeper is a pitch that has big platoon splits against the opposite handed hitter, but Manaea has managed to leverage the pitch in his advantage with a 16.1 swinging strike rate and .542 opposing OPS to right-handed hitters.  However, he does have a kitchen-sink approach versus right-handed hitters throwing six pitches more than 5% on the season.  Comparatively, he throws his sinker and sweeper combination roughly 80% against left-handed hitters.

 

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Manaea ratcheted up his sinker usage from August until the end of the season and produced remarkable swing and miss. Sinkers generally do not induce a large number of whiffs as they aim to produce weak contact. The average swinging strike on sinkers is roughly 6-7% and Manaea was above 12% in that span. His sinker is unique as well because he looks to throw it up in the zone.  Most pitchers look to throw their sinkers low in the zone to generate ground balls. As a result, Manaea holds a below average 37.6% ground ball rate. However, with his lower arm slot, Manaea’s sinker enters the zone at a flatter angle than the vast majority of sinkers.  At his 5.2-foot release point adjustment, he had a Vertical Approach Angle (VAA) of -4.5°. Meaning, this pitch operates most effectively at the top of the strike zone.

Conclusion

Sean Manaea has one of the more intriguing profiles of pitchers in baseball. He has been a major part of the New York Mets’ magical season. His adjustment in the later part of the season allowed him to feel more comfortable and the results reflected it.

Main Photo Credits: Brad Penner-Imagn Images

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