What To Expect: Sean Manaea

Continuing a recent run of calling up starting pitchers in the top half of our Top 100 Prospects, the Athletics said Wednesday that they’ll call up lefthander Sean Manaea, the No. 48 prospect.

Manaea, acquired along with righthander Aaron Brooks last July from the Royals for Ben Zobrist, was 2-0, 1.53 with 21 strikeouts and four walks in 18 innings at Triple-A Nashville. He’s unbeaten since joining the organization, going 6-0, 1.91 at Double-A Midland in 2015, including a dominant 13-strikeout performance in his last regular season outing and then a pair of quality starts in the Texas League playoffs.

He’ll start Friday against the Astros.

SCOUTING REPORT

Pitching from a three-quarters arm slot, Manaea sits at 90-95 mph with his fastball with good downhill plane and late life. Manaea’s fastball also shows boring action at times. The slider flashes plus and the changeup has shown average with fading action at its best. The A’s kept experimenting with his changeup grips, and he threw some nice sinking changes in the Arizona Fall League. Scouts worried about his command during the season, but he showed improvement in the fall. Batters have trouble squaring up Manaea, who’s allowed just 11 homers in 214 pro innings. His pickoff move is an additional weapon. This season, opponents are batting just .232 and lefthanders just .077. Manaea’s delivery has a little funkiness to it. That’s both a good and bad thing for the lefthander–hitters rarely get a comfortable at-bat against Manaea, but he battles control issues at times.

WHAT TO EXPECT

The A’s have options should Manaea struggle, so he won’t have a lot of leeway to struggle as he settles into a big league role. Manaea just turned 24 and appears ready for this step, but Henderson Alvarez should be ready to join the rotation sometime in May and Oakland also has righthander Jesse Hahn pitching his way back at Triple-A Nashville. But Manaea can miss bats better than most young pitchers, giving him a chance to pile up strikeouts. The walks that come with it will keep him from posting great WHIPs.