The Blue Jays will recall Alek Manoah to start Friday’s game, manager John Schneider tells reporters, including Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.
The Manoah storyline has been one of the more unusual ones in baseball this season. He broke out in 2021 with a 3.22 ERA over 20 starts in his rookie season. He then took things to another level in 2022 with a 2.24 ERA over 31 starts, logging 196 2/3 innings on the year. He finished third in American League Cy Young voting last year, trailing only Justin Verlander and Dylan Cease.
But he followed that up with immense struggles here in 2023. Through 13 starts, he was tagged for a 6.36 ERA. His strikeout rate dropped from last year’s 22.9% figure to just 17% this year. His walk rate climbed from 6.5% to 14.9%. The situation finally became untenable after a start against the Astros in which he recorded just one out but allowed six earned runs.
It was at that point that the club made the decision to option Manoah, but they didn’t just send him to Triple-A. They sent him to Dunedin, where their Single-A and Complex League clubs play and the club also houses various resources to help pitchers with their mechanics and other fine points of pitching.
It was about three weeks later that he actually pitched in a minor league game, allowing 11 earned runs in a Complex League contest at the end of June. That was followed up with a more encouraging Double-A start on Sunday wherein he allowed just one run in five innings, striking out 10 while walking three. Schneider tells Keegan Matheson of MLB.com that Manoah was able to make a small tweak to get his mechanics to where they were during his successful 2022 season and the club has decided to give him another shot facing big league hitters.
With Manoah gone, the club didn’t fill his rotation spot with a fixed solution. Alongside the four consistent rotation members of Kevin Gausman, Chris Bassitt, José Berríos and Yusei Kikuchi, they frequently deployed bullpen games that leaned heavily on pitchers like Trevor Richards and Bowden Francis. If Manoah can make a successful return, it would help the club stabilize the rotation and avoid further taxing the relief corps. Though if it doesn’t work out, Hyun Jin Ryu has begun a rehab assignment and could perhaps step up in a few weeks’ time.
The progression of both Manoah and Ryu will be an interesting storyline to watch, with less than a month remaining until this year’s August 1 trade deadline. General manager Ross Atkins recently spoke about how the rotation was an “obvious” target for the club, though he also mentioned that the status of both Manoah and Ryu were going to be factors in their approach. The Jays are currently 45-40, which places them 2.5 games out of a playoff spot.
Even if Manoah is now up for good, it’s possible that his time in the minors has pushed back his ability to qualify for arbitration by a year. He came into this season with his service time at one year and 130 days, meaning the highest he could get here in 2023 would be 2.130. That would have left him shy of three years and automatic qualification, though he would have been in decent position to qualify as a Super Two player, but the missed time will now hurt his chances in that regard.
This dude got shelled in AAA too, home boy is cheeks on the mound
He got shelled in the FCL, not AAA.
That doesn’t make it better.
I was correcting the comment, not saying it was better.
And? Proving my point even further, guy sucks
Says the guy who baseball experience is playing OOTP baseball
Ok goalie guy, why don’t you go slap a puck around or whatever it is you do when your friend isn’t around
He never threw there while he was down….also 10k in last outing with 1 run given up. Worked on mechanics. Hope he does well this go around
Them cheeks gonna get clapped in his next start.
TG, I’m not sure why it seems to give you so much pleasure to see Manoah do poorly. Did he do something to you?
Yeah look at that beard. Nasty.
His problem seemed to be more confidence than stuff. I think they are hoping they can convince him the problem was in his mechanics so he goes out and challenges hitters again. I hope he figures it out. The Jays seem to be a true #1 starter away from contending and that’s what they had in him last year.
Good for him and the Jays. I don’t know why people want to see others fail. I really don’t get it.
‘Tis a shame he’s gotten fat ergo, he gets fat shamed.
Because he’s an a**hat. You know the type well.
RobM; what has he done literally to make you dislike the guy? Made some smart ass comments? GASP WHAT A POS
I had no opinion either way until he got super defensive at a factual comment regarding his conditioning by Anthony Recker on the MLB channel.
That is the problem. He wants to criticize others, often with unfounded takes, yet he isn’t capable of taking real constructive criticism. He needs to push himself away from the pasta bar and get in better shape to try to help his team. Until he does that, it’s difficult to respect him or take him seriously.
This is such a dumb take considering he almost won a Cy Young in that exact same shape. Maybe that is the issue, but to just make such a lazy take like that makes it hard to take you seriously
@jdgoat, is my take the lazy one or is your take the actual lazy one making it hard to take you seriously?
I’m comfortable with my assessment.
That is some great reasoning right there Rob
RobM’s assessment wasn’t wrong. When you talk the talk you need to walk the walk.
The good news is Manoah can turn it around. Manoah wrote cheques he hasn’t cashed (yet).
It’s more about their own crab mentality and not players or baseball.
The guy is your typical Miami Cuban cartoon character.
Obnoxious, loves to dish it out, talk trash, but throw it back in his face he gets offended.
Njbirdsfan
I take it you are from Jersey? If you want to get into stereotypes……well………
I would have liked to see him get a few more starts in the minors but hopefully he does well.
Don’t worry, he’ll be back soon enough.
What’s your deal?
How about a nice game of Old Maid?
I hope this guy has had enough humble pie to stop talking so big and just pitch. Let his performance speak for him.
One good outing and they recall him? We will see. I have my doubts but at least it’s the Tigers. Hmmm.
Hopefully he’s hungry….to get back to his 2022 form.
I hope he his, even if you’re not a Jays fan you can tell that he’s passionate about the game, and you know that he wants to improve as much as possible. It’s also worth noting that Hyun-jin Ryu also did well in his first rehab assignment recently.
No, all non-Jays fans can tell he’s a cocky d-bag who runs his mouth and stuffs it full of food to boot
My theory on Manoah’s minor league experience is this: his “terrible” outing in FCL was to be expected and the reason why I say that is that it is possible that when it came to that game, is was for Manoah to layout a sort of “blueprint” that mainly focuses on ball placement and pitching mechanics experimentation. It’s also possible that he may not have been playing at his true potential at that time, but that remains up for debate. But, when he was called up to AA, he used those key mechanisms he learned from FCL into affect, and the results completely showed true to this improvement. This outing might also be a sign that he may also be getting into the rhythm when it comes to the pitch clock, but that also remains to be seen. If this theory holds up, it may be a sign that Manoah could very well on his way heading back in the right direction. Fingers are crossed but hopefully he’ll have a better second half of the season.
Whatever you need to tell yourself. Manoah sucks.
theory
expected
possible
also possible
might
theory
may
could very well
fingers are crossed
This is your post in a nutshell. Sounds like you’re just grasping at whatever straws you can cling onto.
If your theory is correct it is too soon to bring him up. Needed another start or two to polish his mechanical issues in a non-pressure setting. I am hoping he has fixed his issues but this seems too quick.
What exactly did he say? What are these terrible comments people are referring to???
He called Cole a cheater. He certainly was I think that’s been proven.
A cursory Google search will tell you all you need to know.
You think I didn’t do that already???
If it’s truly that bad then say what it is.
I think this is a bunch of angry Yankee fans.
Do you even know how to use Google? Geez. Seriously!
FsF
If it’s so easy to find why can’t you just tell everyone what he said???
Is it a secret????
If you can show up and comment on how terrible a guy he is you can repeat what he said.
Again I think this is lame Yankee fans crying because he said something bad about the Yankees.
Don’t be so silly. I’m not sure if you just like hating on the Yankees but it has nothing to do with that. Just off the top of my head
-There was the Gerrit Cole incident where he blames him for cheating.
-There was the suspension for throwing at a player’s head.
-There was the blowing on a bunted ball to try to make it go foul. He’s not only stupid but likes to play the foolish clown apparently.
-There was the beef with Verdugo just a couple of months ago even if Verdugo started it.
-There are multiple criticisms he’s publicly laid against various journalists.
I’m sure there’s much more but the biggest thing is his jackass behaviors after getting a key out in a critical situation. I support players celebrating, but he is one of the very few that clearly crosses the line into disrespecting his opponents as he’ll yell at them to go sit down after striking them out or some other stupid nonsense that stupid people like him are prone to engage in.
Blowing on the ball??? Really?????
Journalists are mostly terrible pathetic people I certainly wouldn’t hold it against him for saying something bad at or to them.
Yes, really. It’s one of the stupidest things I’ve ever seen on a baseball diamond and just shows your his maturity level.
Journalists are indeed terrible pathetic people, just like everyone else including you. All Alek has to do is ignore them but he’d rather look like a stupid fool than act with a little class like most every other ball player.
Face it, you just want to argue for argument’s sake and will say anything to defend him whether you believe your own comments or not.
Dude I don’t make judgements about athletes based on nonsense. Blowing on a ball does not mean he’s immature if you interpret it that way its your fault.
Just like the media we got a lot of jealous fans here who wish they could play baseball so they tear down others that can. That’s lame.
Why are you focusing on just blowing the ball.
Sounds like what we have here is a very bitter Yankee Hater who will idolize anyone or anything at the risk of his own integrity just as long as it could make some dent against the Yankees. That’s sad.
Why would you assume I am a Yankee hater? Because you are a Yankee fan????
Get over yourself dude.
No, because it’s obvious. It sounds like you’re the one that needs to get over yourself as you are unable to see facts that you don’t want to. Once again, why do you even bother replying if you aren’t going to address my reply? You weaselly try to play it off like the only thing I said was that he blew on a ball. The guy is a D-Bag and if you are anything close to being like him, then consider yourself one too.
How does blowing on a baseball make a guy a d bag?????
I don’t care one way or another about the Yankees fella I am a baseball fan.
You are playing fanboy and making things up to justify your weird hate.
Once again, if blowing a baseball was all he did, no one would be giving him a hard time fella. Why do you keep stupidly playing it off like that’s all I wrote? How in the world am I playing “fanboy”? You apparently have no clue what “fanboy” means.
Are you saying you are not a Yankee fan?
He called out Cole for being a cheater. And Cole was a cheater everyone knows that. How does that make him a bad guy????
It doesn’t. Only a Yankee fan with no sense would think that.
Once again, why do you keep ignoring his suspension for throwing at a player, which he does on purpose regularly. Or the fact that he behaves like such a goon after his strike outs and disrespects his opponents.
You want to seem to frame this only as he called Cole a cheater (which how many players make those kinds of accusations?) and that he blew on a ball. When in fact those are just a minor part of the whole picture, which I explicitly laid some out for you but like all too many “journalists”, you don’t want to look at facts but only your opinion.
Everyone knows Manoah is a cocky outspoken troll
“Pressure is something you put in your tires” – Manoah quote.
A rather brazen statement by Manoah. Nobody is invincible. Admiral confidence if it is real. Understandable if people are turned off by him.
Facing the Tigers will be a great test for his development.
I think his start against the Tigers would be a good transition game for Manoah. No offense to any Tigers fans reading this, but Detroit hasn’t been doing good all season long, and with Manoah fresh from a great start in AA, it’s shouldn’t be as difficult as people would think, so there’s not need to overreact too much. Besides, with the All-Star break coming soon, it will also buy him some extra time to recuperate and re-familiarize himself with the lessons and mechanics he’s been learned too.
No offense taken. The Tigers are starting to get healthy. The team is willing to take pitches, so it will be a good test of Manoah’s control. The division is weak, but the young Tigers are still hungry. Hopefully Greene and Baddoo will be back soon.
Exactly!!! Also, I wanna give a special shoutout to the boys, Riley Greene and Akil Baddoo. I’ve always been a huge fan of both of them and I really want them to succeed as well. From here at the Blue Jays fan base, we are wishing the two of them a speedy recovery.
Man if Atkins rushes him back ahead of schedule and his mechanics are still cooked, could be the final straw for Atkins
Now my comments are awaiting moderation because some angry little Yankee fans complained about nothing?
This is why I stopped posting on this site. This right here.
BooHoo. bad Yankees. Wah wah wah
Just another crybaby Yankee hater
I don’t hate the Yankees fella. I hate lame fans who think because they cheer for the Yankees they deserve special treatment.
From another Yankee fan…..Good for us……don’t let the door hit you in the you know what……
Must have ran out of Cheetos in Florida
Manoah has more than just a mechanical thing going on.
Fact 1- He was extremely affected by the pitch clock. He’s a slow worker and he’s had to rush his approach and delivery so he’s walking more guys and not getting the Ks he did last year.
Fact 2- He’s out of shape. I’m not saying he’s fat but his conditioning is bad and because of the time clock he can’t take the time between pitches to catch his breath that he used to be able to get.
Fact 3- His slider has list it’s bite. It’s flat so bats aren’t missing it like usual.
Maybe the mechanics will be better and it fixes his slider issue but he’s still gotta be able to work within the pitch clock.
If I’m the Jays I’m telling him to get in shape or he’s going to the bullpen.
The kid got overconfident and dogged it in the off-season
It happens to guys. But the front office needs to lay down the law.
Or if the many many comments on this post, your points seem easily among the most reasonable and accurate.
I hope he has things figured out.
2023 should have been a right off for him in my opinion with work done solely focused on being back to his old self for 2024. I hope I’m wrong but I just think this is the front office showing signs of desperation.
The Jays are trying to rush him back because they have been going with a 4 man rotation and it’s wearing down the bullpen.
His minor league numbers certainly don’t show any improvement. I wonder how much mechanical changes will help.
He was great in his last minor league start. Look it up
I didn’t realize he was that bad his first start.
And you didn’t realize he was that good in his last start obviously.
14.09 ERA in Rookie Ball? Yeah, he’s good to go!
I don’t care what he did on Sunday, but two starts ago he gave up 11 earned runs? There’s no way in God’s green earth that anyone should expect any kind of improvement on Friday. The FO has convinced themselves to ignore reality.
Good luck to AM. We all need a reboot at times.
> We all need a reboot at times.
How do I reboot a person? Asking for a friend.
I think it’s too soon, he should’ve had a couple more games in the minors then maybe come back after the All Star Break.
The move makes sense.
The Jays need a spot start before the break.
Bring him back see first hand if what he has been told to work on is working.
They won’t need a 5th starter for a couple of weeks afterwards, so the Jays can option him back down to keep working out.
He is too good to have fallen this far.
if anyone watched his AA start the 10 K’s was good, but a lot of base runners, pitches and not a lot of strikes. The slider was still not good.
I really hope that he does great!.
I’m not expert, and I’m certainly not paid to be one, but my opinion here is that this is a bad idea. Maybe I’m wrong, again, I’m no expert. I’m just a guy who likes to read articles and comment on if the subject is a good idea or not.
So he had one decent start and hey let’s call him back up? This sounds like the guy who goes to Alcoholics anonymous and then gets invited to watch the game at the bar two days later. You could lose him for the season if he gets lit up Friday
making of another rickey romero sad, this guy 80 pounds over weight