PORT ST. LUCIE — Sean Manaea was having breakfast Saturday morning when manager Carlos Mendoza dropped by to tell him about the guest instructor who would be coming through camp.
Hearing it was former Mets left-hander Johan Santana, Manaea felt like a kid all over again.
“He was my first true hero in baseball,” Manaea said Sunday at Clover Park. “Super cool. Like, 13-year-old Sean was geeking out. I mean, 33-year-old Sean was too, but 13-year-old Sean was like, ‘I can’t believe what I’m witnessing.’”
Manaea found Santana in one of the bullpens between the backfields where he was working with minor league pitchers. He wasn’t scheduled to throw, but he wanted to meet his boyhood baseball idol, so he went out to the bullpen and suddenly found himself starstruck.
“He shook my hand and I was like, ‘Whoa, this is crazy,’” Manaea said. “And it was crazy.”
Santana was somewhat reclusive after his playing career ended. He last pitched in the majors in 2012 with his arm practically falling off, but that was the year he etched his place in Mets history with his no-hitter, the first in franchise history. There were numerous comebacks in 2013, 2014 and 2015, but it’s tough enough to come back from one shoulder surgery and Santana had undergone two by 2013.
Santana, who pitched for the Minnesota Twins for eight years before spending five with the Mets, settled across the state in Fort Myers, where the Twins have their complex. He was out of baseball completely until about 3-4 years ago when his son Johan Jr. was playing in middle school, and some coaches asked if he’d like to help out.
“If someone is going to get me back into the game, it’s going to be him,” Santana said. “I was like, ‘Hey, if you want me to be more than happy. I’m a parent before anything, but if I’m on the field and I’m a coach, I’m a coach, I’m not [a parent].’ So that’s the way we handle stuff. And then I really enjoyed it.”
Santana has risen through the ranks as Junior has, now coaching his junior varsity team at Canterbury School. Junior is an outfielder, despite his dad’s better efforts to encourage him to get on the mound, and his teammates don’t know that Santana was once one of best pitchers in the game.
A two-time Cy Young Award winner and a four-time All-Star and a Gold Glove winner who received MVP votes three times, Santana won the pitching Triple Crown in 2006 and led the league in ERA for three straight seasons. The Venezuelan made a career out of his changeup, in particular, the circle change, throwing the ball with a grip that forms a circle on the side.
In today’s game, guys are changing up their changeups by trying to take advantage of seam-shifted wake. It’s something new Mets right-hander Clay Holmes does well with his kick change (the ball “kicks” on the axis to the 3 o’clock spot).
While the game has changed, Santana believes the fundamentals of the pitch are the same.
“To me, it was about changing speeds and keeping them off balance,” Santana said. “Don’t let them get comfortable. I’ll throw in, I’ll throw up, I’ll throw my fastballs up and in, and then I’ll throw my changeup. So I knew I had to know the strike zone to set up changeups. So that’s how I did it…
“Now, with all the resources they have and all the devices and technology they have, you get that information. So now it’s all about trying to get into the game quicker and trying to get the [least amount] of damage you can with [fewer] pitches.
The seam-shifted wake isn’t something Manaea has mastered, but still wanting to gain an edge with the pitch, he sought out the guy who used to throw it better than most.”
“[We talked about] changeup grips and his mentality on the mound, that bulldog mentality we all talk about,” Manaea said. “He’s very open about trying to help out, so it’s really cool.”
Manager Carlos Mendoza, who knows Santana from Venezuelan baseball circles, set it up as a surprise to Manaea. The Mets social media team had the players pose with chalkboards that parents typically use for kids to commemorate their first day of a new grade. They wrote their name, favorite foods and favorite players on the board, and Mendoza took note of Manaea’s favorite player.
“I knew Johan was coming, and I didn’t want to say anything to Sean,” Mendoza said. “So yesterday, when he first got here, I pulled Johan aside and said, ‘Let’s meet Sean.’ It was a pretty cool moment.”
Santana was flattered, though it did make him feel a bit old.
Coaching high school baseball and coming to camp for the first time as a guest instructor has Santana considering getting back into the game in another capacity. Maybe Mets fans and prospects will see more of Santana in the coming days.
Or maybe the legacy he leaves behind is more changeups being thrown by Mets pitchers.
“Maybe I’ll have a good changeup this year,” Manaea said.
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