NEW YORK — It may not be long before the New York Mets shift their focus from what can be salvaged this season to what has to be changed for next. When they do, performances like Sean Manaea’s on Saturday will feel more meaningful.

In his first traditional start since the final game of last year’s regular season, Manaea pitched six innings, allowing two runs on four hits. He had not finished six innings in a start since Game 3 of the 2024 NLDS — the night the Mets took a series lead over the Philadelphia Phillies, the night before Francisco Lindor’s grand slam gave them the series win.

That is to say, the last time he looked like this, he was leading a postseason rotation into the NLCS.

“Huge,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “Big picture, that’s the guy we need.”

New York’s underperforming offense saddled Manaea with a hard-luck 3-1 loss Saturday to the Atlanta Braves. It’s that offense that has prevented the Mets from generating much momentum at any point this season, leaving them still eight games below water in mid-June. Even though Manaea’s pitching was postseason-worthy, the feeling at Citi Field was so very different Saturday compared to 2024; so much has happened since, and little of it good. That was especially true of Manaea.

But whether your concern is getting back into 2026 or moving on to 2027, one of the best things that can happen down the stretch is getting more of the Manaea the Mets saw Saturday.

Before Saturday, the left-hander had pitched in 29 games since the start of last season (just 12 of them starts), with a 5.38 ERA over that span. New York had won only 7 of those 29 games. That made sense: For the first six weeks of this season, he was little more than an albatross on the roster, relegated not just to the bullpen but essentially to mop-up duty. He entered a game the Mets led only once in the club’s first 45 games this season.

When Manaea walked in a run against the New York Yankees on May 17, it was fair to wonder how much longer the Mets could carry someone like this on the roster at all.

Still, Manaea pitched better in the final two innings that day. The Mets came back to fashion their finest win of the season. While the team overall has labored to maintain that consistency, Manaea has carried it outing to outing.

In his five games since that series finale with the Yankees, Manaea has tossed 21 2/3 innings and allowed seven earned runs (2.95 ERA). He’s struck out 22 and allowed fewer than one baserunner per inning.

“We’ve been cleaning all that (mechanical) stuff up,” Manaea said, noting that he’s been getting better separation between his hip and shoulder in his delivery. “It’s a positive snowball effect when you’re feeling good. It’s slowly happened over time.”

Saturday was pretty easily Manaea’s best and most encouraging outing of the season. For six innings, he subdued one of the better lineups in baseball, even if it’s currently missing a couple of important pieces. (Eli White, helping fill in for an injured Ronald Acuña Jr., was the chief thorn in Manaea’s side, with an RBI double in the second and a solo home run in the fourth to account for Atlanta’s two runs off Manaea.)

He showed that his fastball doesn’t need to be sitting at 94 mph to be effective. As long as it’s routinely in the 90s and well-placed near the top of the zone and to Manaea’s arm-side, the pitch can be effective.

That’s because spotting the ball in that location allows Manaea to work his huge sweeper off of it. The two pitches start in the same spot and end up on opposite corners of the zone. The ideal heatmap for Manaea looks something like it did on Saturday: red in the top right for the fastball and the bottom left for the sweeper.

“He competed in the strike zone. He got swings-and-misses,” Mendoza said. “That’s the guy we saw a lot of in ’24.”

While the Mets’ season has been defined by its consistently lackluster offense, the failures of several of their most prominent pitchers have exacerbated their current plight. Manaea, Kodai Senga and David Peterson all slumped down the stretch of last season, and none of them have figured it out this year yet, either. With Peterson set to hit free agency — alongside Freddy Peralta and, likely, Clay Holmes — the Mets sure could use Manaea and Senga to look like competent starters heading into 2027.

Manaea showed he could on Saturday. Mendoza said afterward that the lefty will continue to get traditional starts — without an opener — moving forward.

“I just want to keep this train rolling,” Manaea said.