What the Blue Jays Should Do About Alek Manoah’s Woes

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Among the hot topics this week, “Gibby” and Bastl discuss what the Blue Jays can do about their pitcher Alek Manoah, on whose shoulders hope rests for a successful season.

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Alek Manoah’s Struggles

It’s no secret that Blue Jays starting pitcher Alek Manoah has struggled this season. His 2021 and 2022 campaigns sparkled with 3.22 and 2.24 ERAs and 9-2 and 16-7 win-loss tallies. 2023 has begun with a 1-5 record and an earned runs average that has ballooned to 5.53. There has even been chatter of temporarily downgrading him to the minor leagues.

It’s a terrible start. More critically, it’s getting to be a stretch to even describe it as a “start” given that regular-season baseball has been played for two full months at the time of writing. While his colleagues haven’t won as many games as they’d have liked, Kevin Gausman (3.03), Chris Bassitt (3.80), and Jose Berrios (3.86) all have far superior ERAs.

So, what can the Blue Jays do? John Gibbons shares his thoughts on Manoah:

“Say last year he was just “Average Joe,” there’s no doubt he’s back in the minor league right now. But he was in the Cy Young contention. You also have to remember: who do they replace him with?”

The point is taken. Although Manoah’s MLB career is still young, it has been incredibly fruitful and impressive. Do two bad months negate all the positivity that came before? Furthermore, what’s to guarantee that whoever replaces him, even if temporarily, will produce at as high a level as everyone knows Manoah can? A tough decision lay ahead for the Jays.

Control, Confidence, and Roy Halladay

The former Blue Jays manager almost always has sage advice and wisdom to explain a situation. That said, Manoah’s control issues have the show’s co-host stumped.

“I don’t understand the control problems. I don’t know where that came from. You also have to watch out for confidence issues. You get knocked down enough, sometimes it (confidence) waivers.”

“Gibby” reminds fans that former Blue Jay pitcher Roy Halladay was sent down to Class-A baseball at one point in his career and he turned out just fine. This was during the 2000 season when Halladay carried a gobsmacking 10.64 ERA in 19 games.

“It’s not unheard of that these guys get to the big leagues and go back and forth sometimes.”