Mets' Sean Manaea meets 'childhood hero' Johan Santana

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Saturday morning, as Sean Manaea ate breakfast at the start of just another day at spring training, a man he had never met reached out for a handshake.

Manaea’s eyes lit up. It was his “childhood hero,” he said, one of baseball’s best lefthanders this century: Johan Santana.

Santana was in Mets camp over the weekend as a guest instructor at the invitation of manager Carlos Mendoza, who knows the former Mets and Twins pitcher from Venezuelan baseball circles. Mendoza recently learned via the team’s social-media accounts that Santana was Manaea’s favorite back in the day, and he made the introduction happen.

Manaea described himself as “star-struck.”

“When stuff like that happens, it’s super-cool,” Manaea said, adding that he had Santana posters. “Thirteen-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. It was awesome.”

Those involved deemed Santana’s visit mutually beneficial. The Mets want wisdom from a variety of alumni, including mixing in guys such as Santana, who had never done this before. And Santana, 13 years removed from his last game, wants to continue to reenter the baseball world by dabbling, with eyes on maybe more once his youngest child, Johan Santana Jr., 15, heads off to college.

The elder Santana is content to make mere cameos for now. That is about all he can manage, given his commitment to helping coach “Junior” and the JV baseball squad at the Canterbury School in Fort Myers, where the Santanas live.

For Santana, these conversations with professional pitchers at Clover Park differ from those he usually has with teenage pitchers — some of whom, he said, don’t really know who he is.

“Here, they listen,” Santana said, laughing but not joking. “There, they think they know . . . You try to teach them a couple of things here and there, make them realize what it takes, how it works, why this, why that. Here, they want to learn how you master something. In my case, my changeup.”

Manaea said: “Maybe I’ll have the good changeup this year.”

Manaea long has had a changeup — he threw it 12% of the time in 2024 — but it’s not exactly the weapon that helped push Santana to two Cy Young Awards, four All-Star nods, a triple crown in 2006 and the Mets’ first no-hitter in 2012.

So when Manaea and others get the chance, yeah, there is one topic in particular they ask about.

“He was asking me questions about my changeup: How do I throw it? What do I do? The whole process,” Santana said. “We shared some thoughts. It is good. He has great stuff. And he’s going to be a big part of this team. So whatever it takes to get him better and help him go all the way through, because this team is built up to win.”

Among other alumni Mendoza is convincing to put a uniform back on: front-office special assistant Carlos Beltran, who arrived Sunday, plus John Franco, Darryl Strawberry and potentially David Wright, whose annual check-ins usually are reserved for marketing purposes.

Mendoza began recruiting Santana in Miami last year.

“It goes a long way,” Mendoza said. “The impact that those guys have on players, especially for them, [who] not only played at the big-league level but they know what it takes to play in New York. They know expectations of winning teams, things like that.”

Manaea said: “It’s cool when you have the greats like that handing out knowledge.”

Santana is willing.

“Find ways to get back and give back,” he said. “I already told my wife I’m not going to be home flipping channels. I feel like I can do more things, I can help, I can be part of the game somehow. I don’t know where. I don’t know how. But it’s always good to be back and be part of this. This is who we are. This is how we grew up.”

Notes & quotes: Nick Madrigal, competing for the utility infielder job, dislocated his left shoulder when he charged a ground ball behind the mound, threw on the run and awkwardly fell in the first inning against the Nationals. Mendoza said the Mets don’t know how severe an injury it is, pending an MRI. “We have to wait to see what we’re dealing with here,” he said .  .  . On a split-squad day, the Mets tied the Marlins, 1-1, at Clover Park and lost to the Nationals, 11-6, in West Palm Beach .  .  . Miami ace Sandy Alcantara touched 99 mph in a scoreless inning, his first game action since Tommy John surgery in October 2023. Because Alcantara is the Marlins’ Opening Day starter, the Mets probably will see him in the second series of the year, when they visit Miami.

By Tim Healey

timothy.healey@newsday.com@timbhealey

Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.