The Blue Jays announced a series of roster moves today, the most notable of which is that right-hander Alek Manoah has been optioned to the Florida Complex League. The club also optioned right-hander Jay Jackson and infielder Ernie Clement. To fill those three roster spots, righty Chris Bassitt has been reinstated from the paternity list, infielder Santiago Espinal has been reinstated from the injured list and right-hander Bowden Francis has had his contract selected. To open a spot on the 40-man for Francis, righty Zach Thompson was designated for assignment.
The 2023 season has been a stunning fall from grace for Manoah, 25, who had previously been on a meteoric rise. The Jays selected him 11th overall in the 2019 draft and it didn’t take him long to make it up to the major leagues. He made six Low-A starts in his draft year, then the minor leagues were wiped out by the pandemic in 2020. In 2021, he was sent to Triple-A and allowed just a single earned run through three starts before getting the call to the majors.
It was an aggressive move given his lack of minor league innings but Manoah quickly justified it. He eventually posted a 3.22 ERA over 111 2/3 innings in that season, finishing eighth in American League Rookie of the Year voting. He took things to another level last year with a 2.24 ERA over 196 2/3 frames, striking out 22.9% of opponents against a 6.5% walk rate. He finished third in the AL Cy Young vote, trailing only Justin Verlander and Dylan Cease.
He seemed to be an ace in the making and was given the Opening Day nod for the Jays here in 2023. Unfortunately, just about everything has soured for him this year. His strikeout rate is down to 17% and his walk rate has more than doubled to 14.9%. His ERA on the year is 6.36, almost triple his earned run rate from last year. It’s been speculated for weeks as to whether some kind of action was necessary but he seemed to finally put the writing on the wall last night when he allowed six earned runs against the Astros while only recording a single out, forcing the bullpen to absorb 8 2/3 innings.
After that trouncing, manager John Schneider said that “everything is on the table” in how to move forward. It seems that wasn’t just bluster as the club will now send Manoah to their Florida Complex facilities to see if he can figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. The length of that process could potentially have implications for Manoah’s future earning power. He came into this season with one year and 30 days of MLB service time. A new “year” flips over at 172 days, so he’s already gone over the two-year mark, but this move makes it less likely he’ll qualify for Super Two status at season’s end.
Of course, that’s likely just a minor detail right now. In the grand scheme of things, the long-term trajectory that once seemed so straightforward suddenly seems incredibly murky. Both Manoah and the Blue Jays will undoubtedly be keenly focused on figuring out how to get him back to being a viable major leaguer, for this season and for the rest of his career.
In the meantime, the Jays will now have to patch over a hole in their rotation. Kevin Gausman, Bassitt, José Berríos and Yusei Kikuchi should have the next four days spoken for but the Jays figure to require another starter by Saturday. It’s possible that Francis, 27, could be a factor there, either as a traditional starter or part of a bullpen game of some kind. Drafted by the Brewers in 2017, he came over to the Blue Jays alongside Trevor Richards in the 2021 deal that sent Rowdy Tellez to Milwaukee.
Between those two organizations, Francis posted a 3.93 ERA in the minors in 2021, split between Double-A and Triple-A. That got him a spot on Toronto’s 40-man roster in the winter to protect him from being selected in the Rule 5 draft. He struggled in 2022 and lost his roster spot, posting a 6.59 ERA in Triple-A, though he did make his major league debut with a scoreless outing that lasted two thirds of an inning.
Despite that rough year, he’s had some decent momentum since. He joined Criollos de Caguas in Puerto Rico for some time in winter ball, posting a 1.51 ERA in 35 2/3 innings there. He then had a 1.08 ERA in 13 Spring Training innings before heading to Triple-A Buffalo. He made a couple of starts before going on the minor league injured list but has been back in action for a couple of weeks now and has a 2.89 ERA in the minors so far this year. The Jays haven’t made any announcements about their future rotation plans, but it’s possible that it could be contingent on whether or not Francis is needed before Saturday. With the bullpen fairly taxed after Manoah’s start last night, he could be pushed into action sooner if another starter struggles this week.
One player who apparently won’t be an option to join the rotation is Thompson. He came over to the Blue Jays from the Pirates in an offseason trade but has a 6.89 ERA through 11 Triple-A starts on the year so far. His 8.8% walk rate is fairly average but his 14.4% strikeout rate is well below. He seemed to break out as a viable big league pitcher with the Marlins in 2021, posting a 3.24 ERA in 75 innings that year. But he struggled in 2022 after getting traded to the Pirates, registering a 5.18 ERA last year.
The Jays will now have one week to trade Thompson or pass him through waivers. His poor results both last year and this year will obviously temper interest, but he has past major league success and a full slate of options. With many teams around the league dealing with injuries and in need of pitching depth, he could still find some interest. If he were to clear waivers, he would not have the right to elect free agency since he doesn’t have three years of service time or a previous career outright.
From 3rd in Cy Young voting to THE COMPLEX LEAGUE in less than a year. Brutal but necessary.
They’re sending him to Florida so he can enjoy some time in nice weather and reset his mental while working on stuff. They didn’t send him down there cause they thinks he’s so bad he isn’t good enough for AAA
I’m not sure about the weather aspect, but I agree it’s not like it’s those awful mobile game ads where your character gets sent down to the first rung of the ladder.
Seems more like a hard mental reset and low stakes “games” where they might very well have more training resources on hand than in Buffalo (although tbh 70s in Buffalo sounds nicer than 90 in Dunedin fwiw lol).
The Jays completely renovated their Dunedin ST complex a few years back. It’s a state of the art training facility now, loaded with analytical / conditioning equipment, medical facilities and tons of staff, including their High Performance training team (which I believe included sports psychologists). So, that’s actually the best possible place for him to go to work on his mechanics and his mindset.
It also allows him to be closer to family (he’s from Florida, and he and his mom are incredibly close), and that extra level of support away from the field shouldn’t be overlooked or underestimated…
they sent him to Florida because they didn’t want to start a chicken wing shortage in Buffalo
You guys are being real detailed and technical when what you should be saying is “too fat for the pitch clock”
Manoah, Lynn and, of course, Vogelbach, should all go on a diet. It would help their performances. And Vogelbach might one day need to order a mitt.
What further explanation do you need?
Maybe they can pare some pounds off of him.
He has definitely developed a walk-in navel during his short Major League tenure.
LOL @ WALK IN NAVEL!!!
2023 version of Sparky Lyle.
Serves him right for all the non-sense he said in regards to Gerrit Cole.
Oh come on… a little rivalry between division foes and its good for the game.
He’s personally disparaged a number of players. It was bad karma.
Sure, but they aren’t rivals. They talk a lot of smack for a team that has won the division once since 1993, eight years ago in 2015. And the person doing all the talking isn’t on a major league roster. That makes you a loud mouth chump, not heated division rivals!
He was a finalist in Cy Young voting last year and owned the Yankees… Should every guy smack talk? No probably not but again I think the little spat between Cole and Manoah was good, I don’t think that any kids or wives or anything were brought into it that I saw so as long as they’re keeping it ball related why not?
I think it would be all in good fun if Monoah said something like “Cole’s fastball produces more hits than Dr. Dre”. The personal attacks of cheating without any proof are not light-hearted jabs. They’re pretty serious unsubstantiated claims that are not “ball related”. I hope he makes it back to the majors so that the Yankees can thump him. I also hope is humbled by this experience and just lets his arm talk for him in the future.
Cole was fairly transparent with his “I don’t know how to answer that” when asked if he used that spider-tac or whatever it was called.
I hope Manoah figures it out as a Jays fan for many reasons but I also hope he keeps the fire. I don’t want every single player to act and talk the same, it’s entertaining to have guys show their emotions in different ways from chirping to bat flips to whatever they say in the media. Robot umps? Maybe. Robot players? Definitely not.
Gerrit Cole is right now the face of foreign substance abuse , just don’t ask him cause he “won’t know how to answer that”.
The complex is there because it has specialists to observe and work with more than an in game approach in the minors.
No road travel, and more video, tech features are available there as well which will help aid in finding out what is wrong.
My immediate thought was it’s easier to keep an eye on what he’s eating if you have him down at the complex. Orioles fan here, when he started against us he looked a bit bigger than I remembered last season and I wonder if that’s apart of his struggles right now
What happened was his Manoah’s manager told him ” You need to beat all those Orioles” and Manoah thought he said ” eat all those Oreos”.
Pull a Halladay and come back strong young fellah.
Or pull a Ricky Romero and don’t come back.
Yeah, worried about that too.
Maybe Mariano can teach Manoah the cutter to?
Went from Manoah to Manure almost overnight.
They should have left him in the rotation to work things out. -Yankees fans
He needs a reset, not a tweak. Walk rate more than double, homer rate more than double, strikeouts down. Peripherals bad. Better to work this out without the pressure of being on a contending team. He’ll be back.
Better for Alek but not Joe.
That’s what they were trying to do and trust me due to how bad the AAA starters have been preforming this was there last choice. When the year started Bowden Francis would have been there 4th or 5th choice to call up to start games. Not that the kids bad cuz he has real potential but there are 3 or 4 guys on the 40 man that have really done horrible including 2 guys with major league exp aswell as there 3rd or 4th best prospect.
I wish Bowden the best sending Alec down was really what he needed, the pitch clock is part of his issues. He has 4 or 5 times every game just got the pitch out, he doesnt seem to pay attention to the run game either. This is his first time struggling and ppl aslo forget the guy only had 80 milb innings before going to the big club. Edit he has less minor league innings his whole career then he has MLB innings this year
What a fall from grace.
Eh. He’s young and such a move helped Mackenzie Gore, as one example. Early June is a good time to do it.
Mackenzie Meh. More like Al Gore
He needs to fall frome grease.
Maybe he’ll consider using the sticky stuff now?
He already uses the sticky stuff. It’s called hot fudge.
@DCartrow
Now that he’s in Florida does this mean he has to eat it with his fingers?
42 walks in 58 innings is brutal
43% hard hit against, only 17% strikeout rate against a 15% walk rate. That’s brutal indeed.
The entire blue jays staff 203 walks in 541 ip. He has over 20% of team walks in 10% of innings.
Hard hit rate is awful as well
Lol
He has the pitcher equivalent of the yips. Hopefully he can find his old form.
I just hope it is not something like what happened to Rick Ankiel. In that playoff game against Atlanta, he suddenly could not throw strikes. Some kind of mental issue that just manifested. That was horrible to watch, and I am an Atlanta fan. He never was an effective pitcher again, but he was able to reinvent himself as an outfielder.
Hopefully, Alek can figure out what is the issue and put it behind him.
He’s built like a catcher, and these days you don’t have to hit much or even have impressive skills behind the dish, so Manoah does have that option.
He’s not missing like Ankiel did. I wouldn’t put this in the “yips” category at all, honestly. He isn’t getting batters to chase this year, and when they do chase, they make contact at a much higher rate. Similarly, when the swing in the zone, they have much higher contact rate and hard hit percentage than before. It’s not that he can’t find the strikezone so much as when he does, batters crush his stuff. So he has to nibble more, resulting in more walks.
I like Manoah and I believe he’ll come back to some level of high performance, but this is a good example of not calling out other players needlessly.
What does Jay Jackson have to do to stick with the big team? I understand he’s 35 and has been up and down, but he gets strikeouts and has pitched well….
Jackson is a casualty of the circumstances Manoah created by only getting one out. He soaked up a good chunk of the load and was not going to be available for at least a day. Couple that with Bassitt returning and the need for some length to help that taxed pen and he was the obvious answer to go down. He’ll be back up. He’s earned that.
This isn’t letting him figure things out, this is teaching him how to pitch.
Cardinals will take him.
Good. Guy doesn’t know how to pitch. He’s a thrower at best. Go back and learn to pitch and you’ll be fine. Also, focus on talking less and working more.
How is he a “thrower” when his main effective pitches are 92-93 in on the hands of lefties, sinkers and sweepers out of the zone?
It’s wild the things people say once a guy starts struggling. He’s been a great “pitcher” who’s just fallen off the rails here, hopefully he gets right.
Wonder if they saw the poll?
@futuregm12
Oh c’mon! It’s Atkins and Shapiro. Of course they saw poll.. LOL
This guy is nuke lelush million dollar arm 10 cent head
On the bright side for him hot dogs are generally less expensive at AAA ballparks
@CravenMoorehead
With inflation, that’s no longer the case…
$80 for one dog is the going rate now…
Uhhh, Manoah got sent down to a Complex which is rookie-league ball. Five levels removed from the majors.
@ChuckyNj
It’s also where the pitching lab is That’s why he’s there instead of AAA.
Big guy has not adjusted well to the quicker pitch clock. He needs to catch his breath between pitches.
One of the faster rise and fall sagas. I remember when he was the heir apparent just a few months ago, *this* season. Whoops.
“Hey @Anthony_Recker my job isn’t to please you. You are an outsider you don’t know me or my work ethic. What I do in the gym has clearly worked check the numbers, sucks you can’t say the same for yourself.”
Anthony checked the numbers, and instead of apologizing he’s offered to take Manoah to Mickey D’s for his last dinner in TOR for a while.
Alec Mannoah- “I’m going to Disneyland!!”
Wins internet June 6th 2023
“I’m going to DisneyWorld!!” would be more appropriate.
Manoah is #3 and always has been. He can pitch like a #2 on occasion but he will slide back to a #3.
At the moment the problem is more than just “his mindset”. Don’t believe the sportsnet party line. He has put on far too much weight on his midsection so he is slinging the ball to the plate and his top half is not driving to the plate as it did when he was thinner and first got into the league.
He’ll fix it but it will take a while and he’ll come back a reliable and consistent #3. He is still learning what it takes to stay a pro at the big league level. He was rushed to the bigs and now it is a learning reset.
He’s been pitching like #2 all season
Yes , #3 in Cy Young voting. If you mean his pitching makeup is that of a usual #3 starter then sure but #3 starters don’t give you the stats that Manoah gave the Jays last year. Those guys start first.
The clown who couldn’t keep his mouth shut, in more ways than one, is getting sent down. What a shame
Trade for him, Astros, and see if you can fix him.
Nah Stro’s are so good now, last pitcher then need is Fat Boy Slum.
Stros rotation isn’t full strength though. If not him, perhaps Dylan Cease.
Astros have seen how his ass grows.
No thanks.
Not sure spider tack fixes this one.
Good thing Astros don’t use that!
Except on days that end in Y
You have must have them confused with some other team.
No pressure or distractions and it takes him off the road.
They can deconstruct him and get him right physically and mentally.
After a while work him back through the system with a few starts and hope that he’s back by September. Wishful thinking,I will be surprised if he’s back this year.
They probably won’t be able to plan their off season counting on him next year for a rotation spot
Ryu might be back next month, so all is not lost.
Leading the league in walks allowed (42) and more hits (68) than innings pitched (58). Too much traffic on the basepath usually means giving up lots runs. I’m guessing more and more pitchers are hating the ban on the shift as you can no longer load one side of the field with 6 defenders making a lot of “outs” last season hits this season
Future reference, use that energy in the gym and not with Anthony Recker
I won’t lie…the O’s fan in me does like seeing this but overall this is a bummer to hear. Hopefully Manoah can get right with a long reset. Jays rotation is still solid enough to compete without him.
Does Pearson still have any rotation potential? I remember seeing him pitch well starting against the O’s a few years back but looks like he’s been injured/bullpen since then judging from his stats.
My opinion is that Pearson has and always will be a one inning pitcher. He’d make a great closer with a little bit more experience. They Jays will wreck him put him back in the rotation.
As others have mentioned, this is a good chance to get an attitude adjustment. I don’t mind a chip on your shoulders, and I don’t mind some celebrating. But calling out guys that you are clearly better than is unbelievably bad sportsmanship.
If ever someone was on the wrong side of karma, this is it.
Should have kept his mouth shut about Cole. Cole is 7-0 and he’s 1-7 fat boy is embarrassing
Hahahaha dam right.
Should have kept his mouth shut about Cole.
============================
But that involved a team-to-team conflict. I was okay with that. But he was yelling at guys he just struck out, for no reason.
Fat boy slum probably wants to eat all his comments about Cole now?
Why would he? Cole is obviously cheating. Everybody knows it except for Yankee fan’s in denial.
It’s obvious, lose some weight.
So you’re saying he needs a flensing.
He should finally admit he’s injured anytime now.
Out of shape and a huge cringe edgelord baby on the mound. See ya!!
LOL. Ehl On Ehl. Makes all that smack talking he did to Adam Frazier two weeks ago look even more pathetic. Donut boy goes down.
I know right lol. Karma is getting him. He use to talkad crap and do crazy stares after striking out someone like he had the best stuff in the league. But he never had over powering stuff, relied on control and movement from his 2seam. Obviously lost it this yr. He’s like 8 bb away from last years total lol. Pretty bad fall off tbh
Toronto has gone to crap after I left
Manoah needs to lay off the bacon cheese burgers, hes too fat to be playing baseball. These guys are supposed to be athletes, not sumo wrestlers. Same with Vogelfat. Vogelbach has potential to steal over 100 bases a year, all you got to do is put Big Macs around the bases, he might even break the track 100 mm dash record at that rate
I gotta admit it was the first time seeing Vogelbach in a game for me a couple of days ago and its very jarring. I couldn’t understand how he could swing the bat but he got a hit so good for him but if he had a mustache I would have mistaken him for a walrus.
@bullred he is an all-you can eat buffet owner’s worst nightmare. He said in an interview once that his favorite food was acai bowls. Yeah… sure…. Hes better off playing professional football as a defensive tackle. Or better yet, as a competative eater. He might even give Joey Chestnut a run for his money
Anthony Recker feels vindicated. Although fat shaming is a thing, saying a morbidly obese athlete could work on his overall fitness and stamina to bring his game to the next level is not fat shaming its good advice.
This is an issue with American emotional fragility. You can tell someone to give up smoking, or alcohol, or drugs, or gambling, but tell someone should give up junk food, and the 50% of America that is obese will go crazy.
He needs a lesson in humility as much as he needs to lose 20 lbs. His punk-ass attitude doesn’t work well when balls are flying off of bats.
His pitches don’t have much movement.
While I might find fault with him running his mouth, I hope he goes to FL and runs the roads instead and makes it back to MLB soon. His tangles with Cole and Judge were great. Need to see more of that.
Yes, yes, and yes.
Become a real athlete again, get your head straight, forget about making fun of the commoners, and restrict your trash-talking to the NYY.
People mentioning his weight concerns are correct. Not to shame, but I have literally delivered food to this guy before and was not at all shocked what he ordered.
I suspect he hurt his arm from over-exerting himself last season. The guy didn’t just forget how to pitch or naturally regress that much, he probably has an arm issue that he’s in denial about because he probably needs surgery and he knows it’s going to be a long road back from that. I have little doubt we find out he needs arm surgery within a few months if not weeks.
Tyler oneill, hicks, dejong and yepez for manoah and biggio. Help both teams.