Alek Manoah

Alek Isaac Manoah (born January 9, 1998) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays of Major League Baseball (MLB). The Blue Jays selected Manoah with the 11th overall pick of the 2019 MLB draft out of West Virginia University, and he made his MLB debut on May 27, 2021. Manoah was an All-Star in 2022.

Amateur career

Manoah attended South Dade High School in Homestead, Florida. As a junior, he hit .492 with five home runs and 32 RBIs. That summer, he played in the Under Armour All-America Baseball Game at Wrigley Field. During his senior year, he signed to play college baseball at West Virginia University. Manoah was not drafted in the 2016 Major League Baseball draft out of high school and thus enrolled at West Virginia.

In 2017, as a freshman at West Virginia, Manoah appeared in 19 games (ten starts), pitching to a 1–1 record with a 3.07 ERA, earning a spot on the Big 12 All-Freshman Team. As a sophomore in 2018, Manoah went 3–5 with a 4.00 ERA in 23 games (eight starts). He particularly struggled with command, posting a 1.50 WHIP. That summer, he pitched in the Cape Cod Baseball League for the Chatham Anglers where he went 4–3 with a 3.57 ERA in nine starts. Prior to the 2019 season, Manoah was named a preseason All-American by ''Baseball America''. During the season, Manoah was named to the Golden Spikes Award watchlist along with unanimously being named the Big 12 Pitcher of the Year. At the time he received the award, he was 8–3 with a 1.91 ERA in 14 starts, striking out 125 batters in 94 innings. He finished his junior year with a 9–4 record and a 2.08 ERA over 16 starts, compiling 144 strikeouts over innings.

Professional career

Minor leagues

Manoah was considered one of the top prospects for the 2019 Major League Baseball draft. He was selected by the Toronto Blue Jays with the 11th overall pick. He signed for $4.55 million and made his professional debut with the Vancouver Canadians of the Low–A Northwest League on July 27. Over six starts, Manoah compiled a 2.65 ERA with 27 strikeouts over 17 innings. Manoah did not play a minor league game in 2020 due to the cancellation of the minor league season because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

To begin the 2021 season, Manoah was assigned to the Buffalo Bisons of the Triple-A East. In his first start of the season, he struck out 12 batters over six scoreless innings. Over three starts with Buffalo, Manoah went 3–0 with a 0.50 ERA and 27 strikeouts over 18 innings.

Major leagues

On May 27, 2021, Manoah was selected to the 40-man roster and promoted to the major leagues for the first time, and started against the New York Yankees that day, while picking up the win in a 2–0 final. He recorded his first MLB strikeout in his debut against Yankees infielder Rougned Odor. Overall, Manoah totalled seven strikeouts while allowing two walks, no runs, and two hits over six innings. On June 22, he was suspended five games for an incident stemming from a June 19 game in which he was ejected for intentionally hitting Baltimore Orioles third baseman Maikel Franco with a pitch. On July 2, Manoah recorded seven consecutive strikeouts against the Tampa Bay Rays at Sahlen Field, setting a Blue Jays franchise record. Manoah finished his rookie season with the Blue Jays having started twenty games in which he went 9–2 with a 3.22 ERA and 127 strikeouts over innings.

Manoah was selected to represent the Blue Jays alongside teammates Santiago Espinal, George Springer, Alejandro Kirk, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the 2022 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. Manoah pitched one scoreless inning and struck out all three batters he faced. In 2022, Manoah went 16–7 with a 2.24 ERA in 196 innings while striking out 180 batters. He started the first game of the Wild Card Series against the Seattle Mariners, pitching 5 innings, giving up four hits and four earned runs with four strikeouts, as the Blue Jays were swept by the Mariners in the series. Manoah also finished third in Cy Young Award voting, behind Dylan Cease of the Chicago White Sox and winner Justin Verlander of the Houston Astros.

Coming off his first two major league seasons, expectations were high for Manoah, who was selected as Toronto's opening day starter. Instead, the season turned into a disaster. Manoah
struggled early, posting a 6.36 ERA through his first 13 starts of the campaign. In one start against the Houston Astros on June 5, 2023, Manoah allowed six runs in the first inning and was relieved of duties after recording only one out. The following day, Manoah was demoted to the Florida Complex League. His first start in the Florida Complex League on June 27 went poorly, as he allowed 11 earned runs on 10 hits in 2 2⁄3 innings of work.

On July 7, after a month in the minors, Manoah was recalled to the major league club. In his first start against the Detroit Tigers, he earned the win while recording 8 strikeouts, only giving up 1 earned run in 6 innings. He struggled in subsequent starts, walking several batters in his final five starts before being optioned to Triple–A Buffalo after an August 10 loss to the Cleveland Guardians. Manoah, however, reacted negatively to his demotion and did not report to the Bisons, and subsequently informed the Blue Jays that he would not pitch again during the 2023 season. American baseball journalist Buster Olney later opined, "Every year there are literally dozens of players who get sent down and don't agree with the decision, but they get on the bus, get on the plane, they go down, they report to go to work to prove the team wrong. This is a bad career move for Manoah."

Following the demotion to Buffalo, Manoah met with specialists who examined his knee, back and right quadricep, with no structural damage being found. While media speculated on whether Manoah's struggles were mental or physical in origin, Blue Jays' Manager John Schneider simply described the situation as "frustrating", adding that Manoah "feels like he's not ready to compete so we're going to respect that and kind of move on from it." Manoah was officially shut down in September, having not thrown a pitch since his August 10th demotion. In Manoah's absence, the Blue Jays secured a playoff spot, playing the Minnesota Twins in the best-of-three AL Wild Card Series. At season's end, GM Ross Atkins reiterated that no structural damage had been found, but that Manoah had recently received "an injection" to relieve discomfort in his right shoulder, and that team doctors had no input in that decision. He said that Manoah "felt as though that was the next best step", and also noted that Manoah was not seeking a trade and was unlikely to work through his issues in winter ball.

On May 5, 2024, Manoah returned to the majors to pitch against the Washington Nationals. He pitched for 4 innings and surrendered 6 earned runs in an 11–8 loss. On May 19, in a game against the Tampa Bay Rays, Manoah recorded his 400th career strikeout. He became the second-fastest Blue Jay pitcher to accomplish this feat. The Blue Jays would go on to win the game 5–2. On June 7, it was announced that Manoah would undergo season-ending surgery to repair the UCL of his throwing elbow.

Pitching style

Manoah features an upper 90s mph fourseam fastball, a mid 90s sinker, a changeup, and a slider that he learned from watching Dellin Betances on Rob Friedman's Twitter account, PitchingNinja.

Personal life

Manoah's older brother, Erik, was drafted by the New York Mets in the 13th round of the 2014 Major League Baseball draft, but was released in 2019. All four of Manoah's grandparents are Cuban and Manoah can speak Spanish.

References

Further reading

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External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Manoah, Alek
1998 births
Living people
American expatriate baseball players in Canada
American League All-Stars
American baseball players of Cuban descent
Baseball players from Miami
Buffalo Bisons (minor league) players
Chatham Anglers players
Dunedin Blue Jays players
Florida Complex League Blue Jays players
Major League Baseball pitchers
New Hampshire Fisher Cats players
Sportspeople from Homestead, Florida
Baseball players from Miami-Dade County, Florida
South Dade Senior High School alumni
Toronto Blue Jays players
Vancouver Canadians players
West Virginia Mountaineers baseball players