The Mets opened their first game after the trade deadline on Tuesday night with a roster that looked sharply different, and Sean Manaea was the one taking the ball. He started against Joey Cantillo as New York faced the Guardians at 6:40 PM at Progressive Field in Cleveland, OH.
That matchup came with the kind of turnover that changes how a club feels from one week to the next. Tyrone Taylor was the only bat moved out, but the Mets also sent two bats away in the Ben Rortvedt trade, while A.J. Minter, Freddy Peralta, Huascar Brazobán, Brooks Raley, Luke Weaver and Clay Holmes were all gone from the pitching staff. In their place, Dedniel Núñez, Jefry Yan, Nate Lavender, Chayce McDermott, Xzavion Curry and Cristian Pache were set to join the team in Cleveland, making this less a normal August stop than a first look at a new version of the Mets.
Manaea had earned the start by steadying himself before the deadline shuffle. He had worked in 23 games and logged 91 2/3 innings for the Mets, with a 2-5 record, a 4.42 ERA, a 4.33 FIP, a 1.342 WHIP and a 94 ERA+. In his last two starts, he gave up three runs over 12 innings, striking out seven while allowing 11 hits and four walks. Since returning to the rotation full time, he had thrown 48 2/3 innings across nine starts with a 3.88 ERA and a 4.64 FIP.
Cantillo brought a different kind of profile on the other side. He had made 23 starts and covered 113 2/3 innings, with an 8-6 record, a 3.88 ERA, a 3.88 FIP, a 1.452 WHIP and a 107 ERA+. He had allowed no runs over four innings in his previous start while striking out eight, and in July he worked six starts without going beyond five innings, posting a 3.90 ERA over 27 2/3 innings.
There was one more wrinkle in the matchup. Luis Robert Jr. was the only member of the Mets to see Cantillo in an MLB game, and he was 0-for-8 with two strikeouts, leaving Manaea to face a pitcher the rest of the club had not really seen before. That fit the night: a team remade by deadline movement, meeting a starter it had little recent history with, and trying to make the first game after the roster upheaval look ordinary. It did not feel ordinary.
