Manaea, who allowed three runs on four hits and recorded four strikeouts over five innings in Monday's exhibition loss to the Giants, came away very pleased with his slider, Martin Gallegos of MLB.com reports. "I thought it was awesome," Manaea said of the slider. "Judging everything on how it looked from my perspective and how the swings looked, I'm pretty close to being able to backdoor it and just pitch off of that. For now, I'm extremely happy with how it's turned out and how I feel with it."

EDGE Analysis

Manaea was able to retire the final 10 batters he faced after an uneven performance over the first pair of frames, and he came very close to his target of 65 pitches. Gallegos reports Manaea deployed the slider on 22 occasions overall Monday, continuing a focus on developing the pitch that dates back to spring training. The left-hander did top out at just 89 mph with his fastball, but Manaea shrugged off the middling velocity by expressing confidence in his ability to overcome it with good pitch sequencing. The 28-year-old lines up to make his first regular-season start Saturday against the Angels in the second installment of the season-opening four-game set, and he's expected to be limited to 75-85 pitches.