One of the biggest stories in all of Major League Baseball over the first two months has been the sudden collapse of Blue Jays starting pitcher Alek Manoah of Homestead, Florida. A year ago the former first round pick was an American League All-Star and one of the brightest prospects in all of baseball. This year, it has been a complete disaster. Manoah has simply lost his control, and when he has thrown strikes, he has been clobbered all around the ball park. On Tuesday, it was no surprise when the Blue Jays demoted Manoah all the way down to rookie ball.
2022 All-Star season
It was quite simply a fantastic season for Manoah a year ago and that is one reason why Toronto made the postseason. In 31 games, he had a record of 16 wins and seven losses, with a sparkling earned run average of 2.24. Manoah had 180 strikeouts compared to 51 walks, and gave up 49 earned runs with a WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched) of 0.99. Manoah was not only selected to the All-Star Game, but was third in American League Cy Young voting, only behind Justin Verlander of the Houston Astros and Dylan Cease of the Chicago White Sox.
2023 Struggles
It is interesting that Manoah’s struggles came after a six-part documentary of his baseball career and life was shown on Rogers Sportsnet in Canada. You might call it the Sports Illustrated-like jinx, but it happened. No one expected Manoah to collapse as much as he has this season. His earned run average is 4.12 earned runs higher this season compared to last. Manoah’s 42 walks lead the majors and he has given up 68 hits in 58 innings for a terrible WHIP of 1.90. Now the question will be how long it will take before Manoah regroups. In the meantime the Blue Jays will go with a rotation of Kevin Gausman, Chris Bassitt, Jose Berrios and Yusei Kikuchi. It will now be interesting to see who takes Manoah’s spot in the rotation. One candidate is AAA prospect Bowden Francis.
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