It was a signature move for club president David Stearns, but this wasn't a team that was in the position of being one player away -- even though Soto is one of the biggest needle-movers in Major League Baseball.

Sean Manaea, who emerged as the Mets’ ace down the stretch last season and shed tears as his time with the Mets came to an end in October, has reached an agreement to return, a source confirmed to the New York Daily News.

Day by day, potential New York Mets ' rotation help has signed elsewhere as David Stearns prioritized lower-risk, upside moves this offseason. Early Monday morning, however, the Mets' president of baseball operations made his biggest pitching splash in his two years atop the organization: He brought back Sean Manaea,