ESPN MLB insider Author of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports”
Left-hander Sean Manaea and the New York Mets are in agreement on a three-year, $75 million contract, sources told ESPN, keeping the veteran with the team he helped lead to a surprise National League Championship Series appearance.
Manaea, 32, blossomed into a front-half-of-the-rotation starter with the Mets this year, going 12-6 with a 3.47 ERA and striking out 184 over 181⅔ innings pitched. The deal, which is pending a physical, will more than double Manaea’s career earnings and continues a winter of lavish spending for the Mets.
Last winter, Manaea signed with the Mets for two years and $28 million. The contract included an opt-out, which Manaea exercised. When he rejected New York’s one-year, $21.05 million qualifying offer, he hit free agency and drew interest from a wide variety of teams.
The starting pitching market, in particular, has been a boon for players, with Manaea the sixth pitcher to sign a free agent deal exceeding $21 million per year and the 12th to surpass $13 million in average annual value. Manaea left a strong enough impression on the Mets — both on the field, with his new arm slot leading to a standout year, and in the clubhouse, where he developed into a team leader — that adding him to the Mets’ winter haul proved too alluring to pass up.
Already the Mets had handed out the largest contract in sports history, a 15-year, $765 million deal for outfielder Juan Soto. And with Luis Severino and Jose Quintana being free agents, the Mets backfilled their rotation with right-handers Frankie Montas and Clay Holmes, the latter of whom plans to transition from a relief role to starter. Additionally, the Mets had signed right-handed starter Griffin Canning. Their total free agent spending on the winter is $916.25 million.
New York’s desire for Manaea’s return was strong enough that he joined Blake Snell, Max Fried and Nathan Eovaldi in this winter’s club of starting pitchers earning $25 million per year. Since going to the Kansas City Royals with the 34th pick in the 2013 draft, Manaea has been a physical gem, with his 6-foot-5, 250-pound body creating deception that helped his low-90s fastball play up.
With the Mets, Manaea returned to a much more sinker-heavy arsenal after two years of throwing almost exclusively four-seam fastballs. That, along with the dropping of his arm slot to mimic NL Cy Young Award winner Chris Sale, did wonders for Manaea’s production and had him looking more like the 2021 version of himself.
He excelled in the postseason too, allowing two runs over five innings in a wild-card-round start and pitching seven innings of one-run ball in a division series win against the Philadelphia Phillies. After yielding two earned runs during a Game 2 NLCS win at the Los Angeles Dodgers, Manaea got knocked out of Game 6 in the third inning of what could have been his final start for New York.
It wasn’t, and he’ll spend his 10th MLB season in Queens during a career in which he has thrown 1,184⅓ innings with a 4.00 ERA, 1,109 strikeouts, 335 walks and 158 home runs allowed and that also has included stints with the Oakland Athletics (2016 to 2021), San Diego Padres (2022) and San Francisco Giants (2023).
The Mets, meanwhile, could go in multiple directions to further complement their addition of Soto to the lineup. First baseman Pete Alonso and third baseman Alex Bregman are the best remaining free agent hitters, and the Mets could re-sign Alonso or sign Bregman and shift Mark Vientos from first to third. The Mets also have dabbled in the free agent outfield market, sources said, and they remain active in trade talks, as well.
The trophy is awarded annually “to the player selected as the most proficient in his first year of competition in the National Hockey League.” The award is voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers Association.
The 21-year-old Hutson received the trophy at a surprise party his family had organized to celebrate his selection as a finalist.
Hutson led all rookies with 66 points, and his 60 assists tied the single-season NHL record for most by a rookie defenseman alongside Larry Murphy.
Celebrini, 18, played 70 games and scored 25 goals — second among rookies behind the Philadelphia Flyers‘ Matvei Michkov — and his 63 points tied with Michkov for second.
Wolf, 24, was 29-16-8 with a 2.64 goals-against average, .910 save percentage and three shutouts for the Flames, who selected him in the seventh round of the 2019 draft.
BOSTON — Marco Sturm got his first taste of the passionate Bruins fans when he was traded to Boston for No. 1 draft pick — and soon-to-be NHL MVP — Joe Thornton.
“I mean, it wasn’t my fault, right?” the former Bruins forward told chuckling reporters Tuesday at a news conference to introduce him as the team’s coach. “I got here, and it was difficult. I’m not going to lie. You read the paper or social media or even you go on the street, people will let you know, right?
“But also it pushes you. And I saw it in the positive way,” Sturm said. “I’ve got such good memories here. And I know the fans, as soon as they feel that there’s something good happening here, they will support you. I know that. It kind of goes the other way, too. But I don’t want to talk about that. I want to look forward.”
A three-time Olympian and first-round draft pick who played five of his 14 NHL seasons for the Bruins, Sturm led Germany to a silver medal at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics and spent the next six years in the Los Angeles Kings organization, the last three as head coach of its AHL affiliate.
The 46-year-old former left wing replaces Joe Sacco, who finished the season as the interim coach after Jim Montgomery was fired in November. Bruins general manager Don Sweeney said that as the team tries to rebuild after missing the playoffs for the first time since 2016 it was important to have a coach “who understands our fan base and values the same things — of being incredibly hard out each and every night.”
The Bruins marked the occasion with a news conference in their offices overlooking Causeway Street and the TD Garden. Former captain Patrice Bergeron, who assisted on Sturm’s overtime game winner in the 2010 Winter Classic at Fenway Park, was in the front row as a show of support. German chocolate cupcakes — a nod to the new coach’s heritage — were served.
Sturm said he never considered coaching while he played, but he started working with his own kids before getting the job as head coach and general manager of the German national team in 2015.
“And that’s where I really realized, ‘This is actually me,'” he said. “And that’s where I have passion. That’s where I’m good at. And then to go after that.”
He put his plans for family time on hold and spent six years living in Los Angeles, away from his wife and children.
“I was chasing my dream,” Sturm said, adding that the children, who are now 19 and 21, missed Boston since moving away. “My kids grew up there. They always wanted to come back. And here I am. Now they get their wish.”
Sturm said he wouldn’t have taken just any opening, but the Bruins presented a team that has strong goaltending in Jeremy Swayman and a solid core led by defenseman Charlie McAvoy and forward David Pastrnak that could push for the playoffs if it stays healthy. Boston also stockpiled draft picks and young talent from the midseason trade deadline purge that dealt several veterans — including Brad Marchand, the only remaining member of the Bruins’ 2011 Stanley Cup championship roster.
After posting 100-plus points in six straight non-pandemic-shortened seasons — including a Presidents’ Trophy in 2023, when they set NHL records of 65 wins and 135 points — the Bruins finished with 76 points this season; only three teams were worse.
“Every job — it doesn’t matter if you’re in Boston or not — will be a challenge. But it’s a good challenge. I love challenges,” Sturm said. “I know the expectations here. I know how it is. But as long as I’m putting my work and preparation in, I know I will be in good shape.”
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Edmonton Oilers defenseman Jake Walman was fined a total of $10,000 by the NHL on Tuesday for two separate incidents in their Game 3 loss to the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup Final.
Walman was fined $5,000 for “an incident involving Florida’s bench” during the second period Monday night. Walman had his glove stolen by Panthers winger A.J. Greer, who deposited the glove into the benches. Walman responded by taking his water bottle and spraying a stream at Florida’s players while standing at his own bench, at least four times.
“Yeah, I mean I obviously did that for a reason. I won’t go into the details. It’s just gamesmanship, I guess,” Walman said after the 6-1 loss to Florida, which gave the Panthers a 2-1 series lead. “I’ve just got to realize there’s cameras everywhere and they see that stuff.”
Walman was also fined $5,000 for roughing Florida’s Matthew Tkachuk in the third period. He delivered a series of gloved punches to Tkachuk’s head while the Panthers winger’s arms were being held by Edmonton defenseman John Klingberg. Walman was assessed a pair of minor penalties for roughing as well as a minor penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct.
The fines were the maximum allowed under the NHL collective bargaining agreement. The money goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.
The Oilers and Panthers combined for 140 penalty minutes in Game 3, the fourth-highest total in a Stanley Cup Final game. Center Leon Draisaitl called their third period, which featured 122 combined penalty minutes, “a UFC fight” between the teams.
“It was just penalty chaos tonight,” Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner said. “I’m not sure what I really make of it. I think you just see there’s a lot of emotions that are going into this. We’re trying to win a Cup. They’re trying to win a Cup. So there’s a fight.”
Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final is scheduled for Thursday night in Sunrise.