“I don’t think there’s been any talks about anything” involving a long-term extension between Alek Manoah and the Blue Jays, the right-hander told Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi. Noting that he is under team control through 2027, Manoah didn’t seem to expect any negotiations in the near future, saying “I don’t think I’m a priority right now.” The right-hander did state that “there’s no hard feelings, it’s just the business part of it” in regards to both the lack of talks, and Manoah’s decision to again take a salary renewal from the Jays rather than officially agree to their offered salary for his pre-arbitration season. Manoah will earn $745,650 in 2023, and he might become eligible for arbitration as early as next winter if he gains Super Two status.
Extending Manoah would give the Jays come cost certainty over what might be some increasingly pricey arbitration years, given how impressive he has looked in his first two MLB seasons. After a strong rookie campaign, Manoah took things a step further in his first full season, posting a 2.24 ERA over 196 2/3 innings and finishing third in AL Cy Young Award voting. If an extension didn’t come, Manoah said “I’m completely happy riding out that [arbitration] process and allowing the team to go spend money on other guys and me continuing to earn my value and earn what I hope to get one day,” though he also stated that “I want to play in Toronto for a long time.”
More from around the AL East…
- Sticking with the Blue Jays, there was some surprise that the team surpassed the luxury tax threshold for the first time this winter, and bumped its real-dollars payroll from $175MM (already a club high) in 2022 to a projected $211.7MM heading into Spring Training. But, team president Mark Shapiro told The Toronto Star’s Gregor Chisholm that “on the expense side, this is the way we envisioned it” after going through their rebuilding phase. “Once we have that mass of talent, we want to put it in a position to sustainably be a championship-calibre team. So we need to surround it with talent, where we have gaps,” Shapiro said. “But not build the team solely through free agency, supplement a team through free agency….The thought was we’d always have to ramp up payroll as we went.” The Jays have some regular shoppers in the higher-end free agent market over the last four offseasons, signing such players as George Springer, Hyun Jin Ryu, Kevin Gausman, and (most recently) Chris Bassitt to expensive long-term deals, while also investing in some pricier trade targets and contract extensions.
- The Yankees announced earlier this week that catcher Ben Rortvedt underwent surgery to remove an aneurysm in the posterior artery near his left shoulder, and that he’ll miss at least a month before resuming baseball activities. The injury was “really shocking” to Rortvedt, as he told The Athletic’s Brendan Kuty, since he first assumed that the soreness in the pointer finger of his glove hand was a normal side effect of catching. But, after he noticed his finger was starting to turn blue, Rortvedt went for further examination, and apparently not a moment too soon. According to orthopedic surgeon Dr. Armin Tehrany, such a circulation problem created “the risk of permanent soft tissue damage,” and Rortvedt “might [have needed] to get something amputated.” Fortunately, it looks like Rortvedt won’t miss all that much time, and the catcher will finally get to start his Yankees career after missing the 2022 season due to oblique and knee injuries.
- Felix Bautista threw another bullpen session today, MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko writes, as the Orioles closer was aiming to ramp up to 80-85 percent readiness. Bautista is still recovering from left knee problems that cropped up at the end of last season, as well as an offseason problem for strengthening his throwing shoulder. Today’s work marked Bautista’s sixth throwing session overall, so he appears to be on pace to reach his stated goal of making the Opening Day roster. Bautista’s first MLB season was a thorough success, as he posted a 2.19 ERA and an elite 34.8% strikeout rate (albeit with a below-average 9.1% walk rate) over 65 1/3 innings, becoming one of many breakout players for the surprising Orioles.
I’ve been on this site all evening reading and commenting and I keep forgetting to remark “wow” at the appropriate time. So here you go: WOW!
And nobody even gave you a cookie.
Only the lone “wow” counts, but good try and thank you for your commitment.
“The injury was “really shocking” to Rortvedt,”
Yet the injury was shocking to no one else……
Ben Rortvedt – fake name.
Hey dude, you think that Dominguez kid is ready to break camp? I just saw that dinger he hit today, holy nadz
This years Julio?
Bro, I wish. It was an absolute smash. He didn’t have a good year last season, but took off in the playoffs. I think it’ll be another year or two before he’s ready. He’s always had a ton of potential, but just couldn’t put it together. If he continues off of last season’s improvements a lot of Yankees fans will be super excited.
It looked like a beer league fastball that he hit but still….when the ball absolutely explodes off the bat like that we’re talking about someone different. That’s Julio/O’Neill Cruz/Tatis ferocity. Nice looking all around minor league stats too
Clipper, this was his combined batting line at three levels last year:
.273/.376/.461/.837 with a 135 wRC+
How is that not good? And he was only 19 years old.
Total, yes, but was boosted up by a good half-season of A+. He struggled some in the first half and also during his 5-10 games at AA when he moved up. He was really good in the postseason though.
My point was not that he wasn’t good for the division, just that he didn’t demonstrate the consistency or talent to get a 26-man spot this season. The results were encouraging though.
It’s a fair question. Dominguez is not ready. He went into beast mode during the AA playoffs but he struggled. He will start 2023 in AA and hopefully elevate to AAA by year’s end. He could get a cup of coffee in September if everyone else gets hurt but I don’t see it.
Since we are on the subject, Volpe isn’t ready yet. We are putting too much pressure on the kid to be great. I just hope he doesn’t get swallowed up by the expectations. I know he hit 20 HR and stole 50 last year but from what I observed, he’s not a great SS so he will probably need to learn 2b or 3b. I also think he lacks discipline and struggles with pitch selection. He looked much better towards the end of his AA tenure but with his violent swing, he needs more time.
Peraza is 100% ready for that SS job. When Donaldson and Bader are gone, Dominguez and Volpe will take their place in 2024.
Fans may be too hyped. Yankee front office isn’t rushing him. I think he’s fine on that front.
Why it was shocking isn’t really conveyed in this MLBTR summation, Clipper. If you read the account on The Athletic, it becomes clear. The Yankees’ medical staff sent him to local doctors who didn’t find the cause of the problem. He was then flown to Dallas, where a surgeon saved him from needed amputations:
‘So, last week, the team flew him to Dallas, Texas, where Dr. Gregory Glass, a vascular surgeon, figured it out: Rortvedt had suffered an aneurysm. It was in the posterior artery near his left shoulder, and it was stunting his circulation. If Rortvedt’s diagnosis were to have come later, amputation might have been necessary, said Dr. Armin Tehrany, a Manhattan-based orthopedic surgeon.
‘The 25-year-old had the surgery, returned to Tampa on Thursday, and on Saturday morning, he was inside the clubhouse at George M. Steinbrenner Field, still processing the ordeal — and how fortunate he was to have it spotted in time.
“If the aneurysm or the partial clotting isn’t addressed, then it gets worse,” he told The Athletic. “My cold finger continues to get worse, and then it transfers to other fingers, and then things could happen up the chain that could be even worse.”
What’s troubling about this is that the Yankees’ medical staff and the local doctors didn’t figure it out.
Yeah, PFKA, I certainly jumped the gun on the humor. I did read more later and didn’t revisit this, but you’re right. It does appear to be much more serious issue that they finally uncovered.
I agree with your point as well: exactly what are the Yankees doctors doing? Perhaps they’re no worse than other team doctors, but between Montas, Rortvedt, DJL, Stanton, and others, it truly seems like there’s a disconnect somewhere within their system. Couple that with the ubiquitous statements regarding injuries, for example Boone telling the media, “it seems minor,” or “we expect him to be back before too long,” or whatever else, and it appears to be a very concerning trend within the Yankees Organization.
Again, it may just appear to be that way because I pay closer attention to the Yanks, but it’s unsettling nonetheless.
No harm in seeing another from Alek
I find it hard to believe he isn’t even making $1m this season and that he’s ok with it.
Just the dumb way a lot of unions work, heavy emphasis on protecting the paychecks for older members while promoting some bs about how it’s the natural order of things to be overworked and underpaid when you’re young… though still superior to management’s preference to screw everyone.
He made 2.1 in bonuses last year
I think he is my favorite non Mariner in baseball. He is very fun to watch pitch. A hybrid old school workhorse type with the modern day nasty sinker slider string. It makes his very average to slightly above average fastball look extremely good. And he paints with that thing. My 12 yr old nephew is a good little pitcher and I’m trying to get him to watch as much Manoa as possible
Completely agree
Manoah will be the #1 priority next year when they lock up Vlad, Chappy and possibly BO this year.
He’ll certainly get an offer if he puts up another top 3 Cy season
He’s a phenomenal pitcher, and imho, they absolutely need him if they plan to continue contending. I know Gaus is top-tier as well, but that one-two punch is devastating. Plus, he’s got a bit more attitude than Gaus, so they offset. Very similar to Cole & Rodon. The guys need that one pitcher on the staff with that attitude (that can also back it up).
Vlad is a distinct possibility to get locked up. Bo is much, much lower. Chapman I’m not so sure of. His bat still plays but the glove work has declined to a 2/1 DRS/OAA in 2022 from a 10/17 in 2021. There will be 2 determining factors for me. How much Machado is projected to get (obviously Chapman will get a percentage of that) and Barger’s performance in the minors.
No comma is needed after the word “but.” See Chicago Manual of Style 5.203 for beginning a sentence with a conjunction.
Stop it. Nobody cares that you’ve read the Chicago Manual of Style. Whether or not someone puts a comma after the word but has no impact on whether the sentence will be understood and that is the important thing. If you want to play grammar and punctuation police go somewhere else.
Ex. A: someone who doesn’t care about the written word of the English language. A philistine whose anti-intellectualism runs so deep that he disses one of the most respected style guides in our language, one valued by the journalists whose content he consumes for free.
“Whether or not someone puts a comma after the word but has no impact on whether the sentence will be understood and that is the important thing.”
Missing at least one comma there.
“If you want to play grammar and punctuation police go somewhere else.”
Another here too.
Plus, more people care about what I said than what you said. Take the L you cornball.
I think it’s kind of pathetic that certain major league players are pimping home runs off minor league pitchers in the first games of spring training.
Poster…Just relax a bit. It’s not a big deal.
Neither is a home run by a major league hitter off a minor league pitcher shaking off the rust in the first games of spring training.
I think it was just being glad to be back playing baseball so they watched it a bit longer than they should have but give them a break, it wasn’t anything personal towards the pitcher. People can find drama in anything these days.
I’m thinking of one in particular who acted like it was a game-winner in the playoffs, with hand gestures and trash talk as he showed up the pitcher. It was ridiculous. Like as if Muhammad Ali or Mike Tyson were to climb the ropes and throw a celebratory fit because he knocked out his sparring partner in training camp. Of course, neither of them would have done something so silly.
It’s training camp, and these games are for practice.
K sorry . I didn’t see that.