Sources - LHP Sean Manaea returns to Mets on 3-year, $75M deal - ESPN

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 181.2 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 the free agent market 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 clubhouse 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 free agents, they 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