Mets and pitcher Sean Manaea finalize $75 million, 3-year deal

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Mets and pitcher Sean Manaea finalize $75 million, 3-year deal

2024-12-28 13:26 Last Updated At：13:30

NEW YORK (AP) — Sean Manaea and the New York Mets finalized a $75 million, three-year contract Friday night that keeps one of the team's best pitchers last season at the front of a remodeled rotation.

The sides agreed to terms earlier this week, subject to a successful physical.

Manaea emerged as New York's top starter in 2024 during his first season with the club, going 12-6 with a 3.47 ERA in 32 outings. The left-hander declined his player option for 2025, passing up the final $13.5 million of a $28 million, two-year deal he signed in January, to become a free agent for the third straight offseason.

Then he turned down a $21.05 million qualifying offer from the Mets last month to hit the open market again.

“Sean was an integral part of what the team accomplished last season,” Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns said in a statement. “He impressed on the field leading the rotation and in the clubhouse with his character, attitude, and composure. I am excited to watch him continue to flourish over the next few years.”

The reunion with Manaea, who turns 33 on Feb. 1, gives the Mets a much-needed frontline starter to help complete their new-look rotation. After signing slugger Juan Soto to a record $765 million, 15-year deal, owner Steve Cohen has committed $916.25 million to five free agents this offseason — four of them starting pitchers.

The club also inked right-handed newcomers Frankie Montas ($34 million, two years), Clay Holmes ($38 million, three years) and Griffin Canning ($4.25 million, one year). Holmes, a two-time All-Star as the New York Yankees' closer, plans to convert from a reliever to a starter.

Manaea struck out 184 batters and walked 63 in a career-high 181 2/3 innings this year. He lowered his arm slot in midseason to emulate another nasty left-hander, NL Cy Young Award winner Chris Sale of the Atlanta Braves, and became New York's most effective starter down the stretch, with a 6-2 record and 3.09 ERA in his final 12 regular-season games.

During the playoffs, Manaea went 2-1 with a 4.74 ERA and 19 strikeouts in four starts covering 19 innings as the Mets made a surprise run to the National League Championship Series.

A trio of veteran starters then became free agents: Manaea, Luis Severino and Jose Quintana. Severino signed a $67 million, three-year contract with the Athletics.

Manaea's agreement matches the $75 million, three-year deal free agent right-hander Nathan Eovaldi got to remain with the Texas Rangers — although about $23 million due to Manaea will be deferred. Eovaldi turns 35 in February.

Manaea, Montas and Holmes figure to have spots in a projected 2025 rotation that includes incumbents Kodai Senga and David Peterson. Canning, Tylor Megill, Paul Blackburn and Jose Buttó are among the candidates who could help round out the group.

A nine-year major league veteran, Manaea is 77-62 with a 4.00 ERA in 198 starts and 30 relief appearances with Oakland (2016-21), San Diego (2022), San Francisco (2023) and the Mets. He pitched a no-hitter for the A's against Boston in April 2018.

Manaea was selected 34th overall by the Kansas City Royals in the 2013 amateur draft out of Indiana State.

Last month, he won the Ben Epstein/Dan Castellano Good Guy Award in a vote by the New York chapter of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America for his consistent cooperation with reporters.

Manaea gets $25 million annually, of which $7.75 million is deferred without interest and payable in $2,325,000 installments each July 1 from 2035-44.

He would earn $50,000 for making the All-Star Game if he agrees to participate, $50,000 for winning a Cy Young Award, $25,000 for finishing second and $10,000 for third. He would get $100,000 for World Series MVP and $50,000 for League Championship Series MVP or winning a Gold Glove. He receives a hotel suite on road trips.

Manaea’s 2025 deferred money is due in $2,325,000 installments each July 1 from 2035-37 and $775,000 on July 1, 2038. His 2026 deferred is due $1.55 million on July 1, 2038, $2,325,000 each on July 1 in 2039 and 2040 and $1.55 million on July 1, 2041. His 2027 deferred is due $775,000 on July 1, 2041 and $2,325,000 each on July 1 in 2042, 2043 and 2044.

AP Baseball Writer Ronald Blum contributed to this report.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB

Israel detains the director of one of northern Gaza's last functioning hospitals during a raid

2024-12-29 01:24 Last Updated At：01:30

DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel's army detained the director of one of northern Gaza 's last functioning hospitals as overnight strikes elsewhere in the territory killed nine people, including children, Palestinian medical officials said Saturday. Israel's military alleged that Hamas militants were using the facility and said over 240 people were detained.

Gaza's Health Ministry said Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, was arrested Friday along with dozens of other staff and taken to an interrogation center. The ministry said Israeli troops stormed the hospital and forced many staff and patients outside and told them to strip in winter weather, according to the ministry.

Israel's military on Saturday confirmed it detained the hospital director for questioning and called him a suspected Hamas operative while providing no evidence. It said it encircled the hospital and special forces entered and found weapons in the area. It said militants fired on its forces and they were “eliminated.” An Israeli military spokesman, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, later asserted to journalists that most of those detained are Hamas operatives.

On Friday, the military denied it had entered or set fire to the hospital complex but acknowledged it had ordered people outside. The military repeated claims that Hamas militants operate inside Kamal Adwan, which hospital officials have denied.

The hospital has been hit multiple times over the past three months by Israeli troops waging an offensive in largely isolated northern Gaza against Hamas fighters it says have regrouped. The health ministry said a strike on the hospital earlier this week killed five medical personnel.

MedGlobal, the humanitarian organization for which Abu Safiya worked, said Friday it was gravely concerned about him. It said the incident follows the October detention of five other staff, calling it an “alarming and egregious pattern of targeting medical personnel and spaces.”

Israel’s nearly 15-month-old campaign of bombardment and ground offensives has devastated Gaza’s health sector. The World Health Organization has said the raid on Kamal Adwan has put northern Gaza's last major health facility “out of service" after growing restrictions on access, adding that “this horror must end and health care must be protected.”

The Health Ministry said conditions for Kamal Adwan patients who were relocated to the damaged Indonesian Hospital nearby — also raided in the past — were “extremely difficult.”

The Israeli military statement Saturday said 350 patients along with medical personnel had been evacuated from Kamal Adwan in recent weeks, and another 95 patients, caregivers, and medical personnel were evacuated to the Indonesian Hospital during the operation. It also said it had provided fuel and medical supplies to both hospitals.

The war has killed more than 45,400 Palestinians, over half of them women and children, and wounded more than 108,000 others, according to the Health Ministry. Its count does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Since October, Israel’s offensive has virtually sealed off the northern Gaza areas of Jabaliya, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya and leveled large parts of them. Tens of thousands of Palestinians were forced out but thousands are believed to remain in the area where Kamal Adwan and two other hospitals are located.

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas after the militants' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel in which they killed around 1,200 people and abducted some 250 others. Some 100 Israelis remain captive in Gaza, and around a third are believed to be dead.

Israel continued attacks across Gaza on Saturday. An overnight strike killed at least nine people in Maghazi, including women and children, according to staff at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital where they were taken and an Associated Press reporter who saw the bodies.

Men cried as the bodies, wrapped in bloodied white plastic, lay on the floor of the morgue.

The Health Ministry said Saturday that 48 people had been killed in the past 24 hours by Israeli fire.

Meanwhile, Israel said its troops had begun operating in the northern city of Beit Hanoun, citing intelligence that fighters and Hamas infrastructure were in the area.

Strikes also continued in Israel. Air raid sirens sounded early Saturday and the military said it intercepted a missile fired by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

Israeli warplanes bombed key infrastructure in Yemen again on Thursday. The Houthis also have been attacking shipping in the Red Sea and say they won't stop until Israel agrees to a ceasefire in Gaza.

Mednick reported from Jerusalem.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war