Alek Manoah’s fall from Blue Jays ace to a pitcher fighting for his career has been one of the strangest drop-offs in recent baseball memory.
The former Toronto right-hander went from looking like a cornerstone arm to being non-tendered, and the arc is hard to make sense of. Toronto took him 11th overall in the 2019 MLB Draft out of West Virginia University, and he reached the majors two years later with a six-inning shutout against the New York Yankees in the Bronx.
That debut turned out to be a preview of a huge rookie year. Manoah posted a 3.32 ERA with 10.2 K/9 over 20 starts in 2021 and finished eighth in American League Rookie of the Year voting.
In 2022, he took another leap, putting up a 2.24 ERA and 0.99 WHIP while logging 196.2 innings. He made the All-Star team, finished third in the AL Cy Young race and even picked up some down-ballot MVP votes as the Blue Jays reached the postseason.
Then came the turn. His only playoff start came against the Seattle Mariners in the AL Wild Card series, and it went sideways fast: four runs allowed, three of them in the first inning. That outing followed an infamous quote that did him no favors.
Alek Manoah: “Pressure’s something you put in your tires.”
- Ben Nicholson-Smith (@bnicholsonsmith) October 6, 2022
From there, the slide got steeper. Manoah’s ERA jumped to 5.87 in 2023.
He was sent to the Florida Complex League during a stretch of brutally poor results, later returned to the Blue Jays, and then got optioned to Triple-A Buffalo in August. He ended that season on the temporary inactive list after dealing with mysterious medical issues.
The 2024 season brought more bad news. Manoah began the year on the injured list, came back for five starts, then suffered a torn UCL that required Tommy John surgery. Toronto designated him for assignment in September of 2025, essentially closing the book on the relationship during a playoff push.
The Los Angeles Angels gave him a one-year, $1.95 million prove-it deal this past offseason, but that move hasn’t sparked a turnaround. Manoah opened the year on the injured list before making his season debut in Toronto against the Blue Jays on May 8, throwing a scoreless inning of relief.
Alek Manoah is on the mound pitching for the Angels 👀
This is his first appearance in the Majors since May 2024 🤯 pic.twitter.com/2O8uDXK4ma
- Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) May 9, 2026
There was a brief hint that he might be finding something again. Manoah followed that appearance with five shutout innings against the Cleveland Guardians on May 11. But the comeback buzz vanished quickly when the Los Angeles Dodgers tagged him for nine runs in 1.1 innings the next time out, and he was sent to Triple-A after that.
Since the demotion, the numbers have been brutal. In nine starts, Manoah has a 15.80 ERA and 2.93 WHIP, with 10 home runs allowed and 36 walks.
He is only four years removed from finishing third in Cy Young voting, but his future in professional baseball now feels very much in doubt. The collapse has no clean explanation.
Maybe the playoff dud knocked his confidence off course. Maybe his body and mechanics unraveled under the pitch clock.
Maybe the league adjusted to him. Maybe it was all of it at once.
What’s clear is that Manoah’s Blue Jays run should have gone differently. Instead, it spiraled into one of the most baffling declines the sport has seen.
In Other News...
Blue Jays Just Took Another Brutal Injury Hit Into 2027
Addison Bargers season has already been a grind, and now it is headed for an abrupt end. The Blue Jays infielder will need elbow surgery after a year that never really got off the ground, another frustrating turn in a stretch defined by one setback after another for a roster that has struggled to keep key pieces on the field.
Barger is hardly alone in that reality. Cody Ponce, Anthony Santander, Jos Berros and Bowden Francis are all dealing with injuries that will shape Torontos availability the rest of 2026 and could linger into 2027, leaving the club with more uncertainty than answers as it tries to map out its next steps. For a team trying to stay competitive, the health picture has become as important as anything happening on the field. [Read more 🡒]
Blue Jays May Be Headed For A Deadline Decision Fans Dread
With the trade deadline still a long way off, the Blue Jays are already staring at a familiar kind of front-office dilemma: whether to chase a win-now path by moving established names or try to keep the group intact and sort out long-term plans later. Kevin Gausman, Shane Bieber and Daulton Varsho all sit in the middle of that conversation, and each brings a different type of value that would make him attractive if Toronto ever decided to listen.
Bieber, in particular, has given the Jays another reason to think carefully about what comes next, with his recent stretch showing enough stability to keep him in the spotlight. Varshos power and defensive profile also make him the sort of player contenders would circle quickly, which is why the possibility of Toronto choosing extensions over a reset feels like the real hinge point here. The question is not whether these names would draw interest, but whether the Blue Jays want to be the team that has to answer it. [Read more 🡒]