Sean Manaea hopes to bounce back with Giants after ‘underwhelming’ season with Padres

After finalizing his contract with the Giants over the weekend, newly signed pitcher Sean Manaea spoke to the media Monday via Zoom about the free agency process and why he chose San Francisco.

The 30-year-old pitcher spent his first six years with the Oakland Athletics before he was traded to San Diego in 2022. With the A’s, he amassed a 50-41 record with a 3.86 ERA, but his stats took a bump in San Diego, where he recorded 8 wins and 9 losses on a 4.96 ERA. He started 28 games. When asked about the decision to return to the Bay Area, he listed the foot and atmosphere, but the organization’s pitch sold him.

“I kind of got the sense that, you know, it’s a very professional organization and they take care of their players,” Manaea said.

When asked to elaborate, Manaea listed the Giants’ pitching department, specifically naming Giants pitching coach Andrew Bailey, as why he’s excited to join the organization. While he said he doesn’t know much about his role yet, he’s just excited to “work with this team and get their eyes on me.”

Sean Manaea talks about why he chose to come back to The Bay to play for the Giants pic.twitter.com/TCggEwDJ4j

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) December 20, 2022

When Sean Manaea was traded from Oakland to San Diego, it was only days before the 2022 season kicked off. He talked about that experience and how he adjusted in Southern California.

“Overall last year it was very, very underwhelming. You know, I always have expectations for myself at the very beginning of the year and I definitely underperformed last year,” Manaea said. “You never want to have those seasons, but they did and you know, I definitely learned a lot as far as myself as a man, as a baseball player, going through the struggles, you know, having expectations that I didn’t really have too much in Oakland. But, you know, to be on a team like that and to do as poorly as I did, you know, I definitely, definitely learned a lot.”

He added that he’s going into this season with the Giants with still a lot to be learned. While there’s no singular thing he pinpointed to about last season, he said it was a combination of things that he needs to be more consistent with.

“I think it’s a combination of a lot of things, most importantly just being prepared, you know, with, with everything, with my routines, with scouting reports, with my mechanics, all these things,” Manaea said. “I think wasn’t just like last year. I think it’s just been, you know, a couple, maybe a couple of few years going where I just kind of just been a little like lackadaisical, lazy and you know, as far as like this offseason already, it definitely, you know, learned some things like going to the drive line, work on some things and mechanically and you know coming up with these routines and, you know, implementing them.”

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