Alek Manoah shelled in first start with Blue Jays minor-league squad
Alek Manoah's first game action since being demoted by the Toronto Blue Jays did not go well.
Three weeks after being demoted by the Toronto Blue Jays, Alek Manoah made his first start for the Florida Complex League Blue Jays on Tuesday, and the results were not promising for him.
The big right-hander gave up 11 earned runs in 2.2 innings against the New York Yankees' FCL affiliate in an outing that has to be considered a setback on his road back to the major leagues.
To give some perspective on the quality of competition Manoah was facing, six of the nine batters in the FCL Yankees lineup were below the age of 20.
He allowed two home runs in the start and the two hitters who took him deep — Roderick Arias and Keiner Delgado — had a combined two home runs in 117 at-bats on the season prior to Tuesday.
Manoah allowed significantly more base runners on the afternoon (12) than the number of batters he retired (8) and left the game with a 37.13 ERA.
Although the Blue Jays will be more interested in how Manoah's arsenal and mechanics were looking than his raw statistics, it seems fair to infer from the boxscore that the right-hander wasn't on his game.
After all, Manoah has never allowed more than seven earned runs in an MLB start. During his stellar 2022 season, he didn't give up more than four in any of his 31 appearances.
Getting clobbered to this degree by a bunch of teenagers was a baffling outcome for him. The start comes in the wake of positive reports about the 25-year-old's simulated games down in Florida, which makes it even more surprising.
It's impossible to find a silver lining from an outing like the one Manoah had on Tuesday, and his work seemed to suggest he might not be able to help the Blue Jays at the major-league level for some time.
