Getty Alek Manoah of the Toronto Blue Jays
When a starting pitcher leaves his outing early with soreness in his pitching elbow, there’s rarely a positive outcome, but the Toronto Blue Jays are hoping for the best with Alek Manoah.
The Toronto righty faced just six batters in the Blue Jays’ Wednesday, May 29 game against the Chicago White Sox before manager John Schneider was forced to pull him. Schneider told reporters after the game that Manoah will get an MRI on Thursday.
Alek Manoah will get an MRI on his right elbow tomorrow, John Schneider says. #BlueJays
“It sucks,” Manoah said, per MLB.com’s Keegan Matheson. “I have my faith in god. I’ve dealt with a lot of [stuff] this past year to get back to this point. This game is tough.”
Manoah’s injury comes just four starts into his season; the fourth-year Major Leaguer missed all of April with a shoulder injury. He says he felt some discomfort in his elbow during his last start against the Detroit Tigers, but after undergoing treatment, he was confident he could pitch on Wednesday.
“I just mentally told myself, ‘Stop thinking about it,’” Manoah said. “It’s just a little achy. It’s fine. It mostly bothered me when I extend, so I think that mentally, when I told myself not to think about it, I didn’t guard it and I got more extension than I was on the previous pitches.”
Finding the Old Alek Manoah
Manoah had the best year of his young career in 2022, his first full season in MLB. Coming off a strong rookie season the year before, Manoah started 31 games and pitched to a 2.24 ERA. That earned him a spot on the American League All-Star team and a third-place finish in AL Cy Young voting.
2023, however, was a different story. Manoah labored through 19 starts, sandwiching a June demotion, before his season ended abruptly in August for reasons that are not entirely clear. He finished 2023 with a 5.87 ERA while walking more than 6 batters per 9 innings.
While his start to 2024 wasn’t exactly sparkling — he gave up 6 runs and walked 4 over 4 innings against the Nationals in his season debut — Manoah settled down from there, not ceding an earned run over his next 15 innings. But it was in that start in Detroit when he first felt the elbow soreness that he started to falter.
Now, a trip to the injured list is certainly a possibility with the Blue Jays mired in last place in the AL East.
Next Man Up
Like many teams, the Blue Jays are not blessed with starting pitching depth. Before Manoah’s injury, Yariel Rodriguez and Bowden Francis were already on the Injured List, though they’re both making rehab starts in hopes of rejoining the team soon. Jose Berrios and Yusei Kikcuhi have both been strong at the front end of the rotation, but Chris Bassit and Kevin Gausman have been inconsistent.
Shi Davidi of SportsNet speculated that Bowden could return and team up with reliever Trevor Richards in a tandem starting role, which they did last year while Manoah was in the minors.
“[I’m] down for whatever,” Richards told Davidi. “If they need me for one [inning], I’m good for one. If they need multiple, I’m good for multiple. Whatever the phone says, that’s what I’ll do.”
Meanwhile Rodriguez is still at least one more Minor League start away, but could be a possibility if Manoah is out for an extended period of time.
“We’ll see,” Schneider said. “We’ll see how it goes the first time through, see how Yariel goes his next outing and go from there. But there are definitely a few options and a few routes we can take.”