A’s Manaea is ready to pitch aside Mr. Nice Guy persona
Lefthander working on ‘believing that I’m nasty’
MESA, Ariz. — Sean Manaea’s objective this spring isn’t likely to be visible when the A’s lefthander takes the mound Saturday for his first Cactus League start. It isn’t unveiling a new pitch or arm angle, but emphasizing who he already is.
“I have the stuff, (it’s) just going out there and doing it,” Manaea said early in camp. “Throwing my stuff, trusting the stuff I’ve done is enough and just making sure I’m able to throw all my pitches for strikes. When I do that I think I’m one of the best pitchers in the league, and I firmly believe that.”
Belief was a keyword this offseason for Manaea, 29, whose stuff allowed him to nohit the Red Sox in 2018 and lead the A’s rotation down the stretch in 2019 as he returned from shoulder surgery. His 2020 was far less commanding. He was winless with a 7.65 ERA after five outings, nearly half the short season, before finishing 43 with a 4.50 ERA in 11 starts.
Entering his sixth bigleague season, Manaea says a focus is “just believing that I’m nasty.”
Manaea comes off as laidback with his evolving hairstyles and moments like last Aug. 3 at Seattle, when he waved handdrawn signs for
A’s hitters during a win over the Mariners. He is lauded as a teammate. But he thinks that disposition can be detrimental in games.
“It’s kind of like I’m sometimes too nice, too easygoing when I need to maybe hype myself up,” Manaea said.
Over the winter, Manaea delved into the mental side of pitching. In college at Indiana State, Manaea’s throwing partner was Tyler Pazik, another lefthanded pitcher. Pazik is now a mental performance coach, operating the Pazik Performance Group. After last season, Pazik sent Manaea a tweet detailing how Greg Maddux once hired a mental coach and said: “Are we doing this or what?” Manaea was in.
Pazik said they began by talking about Manaea’s awareness of what he is thinking and feeling on the mound, as “selfcontrol leads to performance control.” They explored his body language and selfdialogue while pitching. Routine is important, Pazik said, as: “The things you do out there physically should mentally remind you of what you want to be thinking about and acting upon.”
“Breath is a big one,” Pazik said. “If you go back and watch (Manaea’s) nohitter, for instance, you’ll see him take these huge breaths in the late innings to just kind of control his heart rate, control what he’s thinking about. That’s a good example.”
Another is how Manaea brings his glove up in front of his face as he looks in before delivering a pitch. Pazik said that can be a “mental checkpoint to be like, ‘Am I thinking about what I want to be thinking about right now?’ ” Athletes benefit from recognizing the actions that snap them into a good headspace, Pazik said. Manaea did but thought of them as superstitions.
“He’d be like, ‘If I do this, I’ll throw a good next pitch,’ ” Pazik said, “when in reality you’re doing that because that’s what helps you get to the next pitch and build comfort and confidence.”
Manaea often isn’t strictly overpowering. In 2018, his best full season, he totaled 108 strikeouts in 1602 ⁄3 innings, but his 1.08 WHIP was 11thlowest among pitchers with 160 innings or more. His fastball averaged 92.9 mph his rookie season; it was 89.8 mph when he returned from surgery in 2019 and 90.4 mph last year. It reached 94 mph during one start against the Padres; in others it barely topped 90.
“When he first got here he was throwing 95 or whatever, getting a ton of swing andmisses,” manager Bob Melvin said. “And then what happens with starters from time to time is the velo ticks down a little and you’ve got to find a way to be effective a little differently. And he has. We’ve seen times when one game he has good velo, another game it’s down a little, and he figures out how to get outs both ways.”
Pazik said Manaea has not brought up velocity in their talks.
“He knows that his stuff still plays,” Pazik said.
Pazik also knows Manaea houses a spark. He recalled that in college, Manaea liked to wear his hat “not perfectly straight.” One day a coach told Manaea to straighten his hat just before a flatground throwing session with Pazik catching.
“He starts hocking the ball like 90plus from 40 feet away,” Pazik said. “And I don’t say anything but I’m scared. This ball is humming in here, I don’t have any gear on and Manaea’s ball moves so much.
“It was so funny. After that I was like, ‘Dude you were throwing it really hard.’ And he was like, ‘Oh yeah, sorry I was just kind of mad.’ But he was nasty.”