New York Mets set starting rotation to begin second half

Manaea, who made his season debut on Sunday in relief of Clay Holmes against the Kansas City Royals, will make his first start of 2025 on Friday night against the Cincinnati Reds. Holmes draws the start on Saturday afternoon, which will see the Mets retire David Wright's number prior to the game, while David Peterson is set to close out the series on Sunday afternoon.

The strategy here for the Mets involves keeping Manaea and Holmes, the two starters who worked the most recently, on relatively regular rest. Peterson pitched one inning in the All-Star Game on Tuesday, enabling him to work on normal rest from that appearance on Sunday.

With those three set for this weekend, the Mets will use Montas and Kodai Senga in some order to begin their next series with the Los Angeles Angels on Monday. New York will probably plan ahead to maximize their chances of using an extra day between Senga's starts, which may be a good strategy to get him through the season healthy.

The optimal move would appear to be pitching Senga on Tuesday, which would mean the Mets wouldn't need to add an extra starter into their rotation until late August to ensure he gets at least five days between each of his starts. The good news for the Mets is now that they have their preferred rotation set up, they may be able to take some of the burden off of their heavily-taxed bullpen going forward.