Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Alek Manoah (6) reacts on the mound while playing against the Houston Astros during the first inning of a baseball game, in Toronto, Monday, June 5, 2023. (Andrew Lahodynskyj/The Canadian Press via AP) (Andrew Lahodynskyj, AP)
One of the most promising young starters in baseball has suddenly become a punching bag.
Toronto Blue Jays ace Alek Manoah (1-7) has had a dreadful 2023 season with arguably the worst of it coming Monday night against the Houston Astros at Rogers Centre in Toronto.
The right-hander surrendered six runs on seven hits while getting just one out before he was pulled in the top of the fist. Manoah’s season ERA has ballooned to 6.36. The struggles have been so bad that a demotion to Triple-A is not off the table.
“As of now, we’re not sitting here making plans for anything” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said after the 11-4 loss to the Astros. “But [we’re] doing everything we can do for him means using every resource that we have, using the staff and using his teammates to help him through it. When I say that everything is on the table, yeah, everything is. We’re just trying to help him get back to the caliber of pitcher that he was. …
“We’ve got to continue to do what’s best for him to help him get better. That’s what we’re going to do, starting tonight and moving forward. That’s been our focus the whole time, so we’ll continue to do that.”
It’s been a stunning fall from grace for the All-Star as he has experienced nothing but success in the big leagues prior to the 2023 season. The 25-year-old burst onto the scene in 2021 posting a 3.22 ERA in 20 starts before dominating baseball in 2022 with a 2.24 ERA finishing third — behind Justin Verlander and Dylan Cease — in the AL Cy Young award voting.
The root of Manoah’s problems are not clear but there are many places to point to. Of course, the easy place look is the new rules such as the pitch clock speeding up the 6-6, 250-pound righty and tiring him out rather quickly.
With no definitive statistical measurement to show how he is adjusting to new rules — other than the results he’s seen this season — poking around at the underlying body of work Manoah has put forth this season shows that he has done virtually nothing well.
Manoah is amongst the league’s worst in hard-hit percentage (26th percentile) and whiff percentage (17th percentile), according to Baseball Savant. In simpler terms, when opponents do make contact, he gets hit as hard as anyone and his competitors are not having any issues putting the bat on the ball.
The most troubling piece of data is that it appears Manoah has lost arguably the most important pitch in his arsenal and one of the most devastating pitches in baseball. In 2022, the former first-round pick out of West Virginia second-most used pitch was his slider as he threw it 27.1% of the time and for good reason. Opponents were hitting .190 off of the pitch which owned a putaway percentage of 20.6.
This season the slider has been reminiscent of a beach ball. Manoah is surrendering a .328 average — a .138 difference from last season — as the pitch owns a hard-hit percentage of 32.6 which is up from 22.7 last season.
The minor leagues could be calling Manoah’s name — just a year after dominating baseball — as there are many aspects of his arsenal this season that may need to be worked out down away from the bright lights of the big leagues.
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Originally published at Tribune News Service