While the Atlanta Braves have remained quiet this offseason thus far, the rival Mets have been exceedingly busy. The Mets handed out the richest contract in baseball history when they signed Juan Soto and they have seemingly been “involved” in nearly every top name on the free agent and trade market this offseason. There is no denying that New York and especially owner Steve Cohen are looking to make a massive push in 2025.

However, the Braves were still well-positioned against the Mets going forward. Despite adding Soto, the Mets were poised to lose some key players especially when it comes to their pitching staff. Even if Soto is awesome in 2025 (and he probably will be), the overall strength of the Mets’ new roster compared to the 2024 group didn’t seem to be much different and could have ended up being worse.

At least, that was the theory. Unfortunately, New York seems to have figured out that adding Clay Holmes and Frankie Montas to their rotation wasn’t a winning strategy as New York went out and brought back Sean Manaea on a three-year deal early Monday morning.

BREAKING: Left-hander Sean Manaea and the New York Mets are in agreement on a three-year, $75 million contract, sources tell ESPN. The 32-year-old is running it back with the Mets.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) December 23, 2024

Mets bringing back Sean Manaea helps mitigate one of Braves’ biggest edges in the division

While he doesn’t get a ton of press outside of New York, Manaea was a really important part of what the Mets did in 2024. In 32 starts last season, Manaea posted a 3.47 ERA in 181.2 innings and ended up finishin 11th in the Cy Young race after a particularly strong second half. Certainly not a “star”-level performance, but Manaea got the job done when the Mets needed him and the prospect of New York losing him was going to be a difficult void for them to fill.

Sadly, the Mets don’t have to fill his shoes now as the two sides decided to reunite on a three year, $75 million deal. Getting back together was always possible as Manaea had a qualifying offer attached to him which was going to limit how much other teams would be willing to offer him. New York leveraged that advantage and ended up getting him back albeit at a relatively pricey rate. The Braves also were a fit for Manaea this offseason, although the prices for free agent starters this offseason suggest that Atlanta may have been out of the bidding a while ago.

The good news here for the Braves is that Manaea does come with some long-term durability concerns and the Braves’ rotation is still better than New York’s on paper. However, the gap just got smaller with a lot of offseason left and that is going to make Atlanta’s path back to the top of the NL East even tougher.