NFL
By: Greg Rector
Alec Manoah had two great seasons for the Toronto Blue Jays. That’s been far from the case in this 2023 season. Right from the first time on the hill against the St.Louis Cardinals on opening night, Manoah has struggled mightily.
Manoah was sent to the Toronto Blue Jays Florida Complex League to get his pitching straightened out. Well, today we saw the results…
Alek Manoah in his first start in the Florida Complex League:
2.2 IP
10 H
11 ER
2 BB
3 K
2 HR pic.twitter.com/vlHjRnFWFf— Barstool Baseball (@StoolBaseball) June 27, 2023
Not the result anyone from the Toronto Blue Jays wanted to see. This happened before when Roy Halladay also went through a period where he had to be sent down and was rebuilt as a pitcher. Some folks thought Manoah would be fixed instantly and be back for the weekend when the Toronto Blue Jays play the Red Sox for Canada Day. That’s not going to happen. Manoah is going plenty more time to fix whatever has gone wrong for him.
Manoah has lost himself as a pitcher like Halladay years ago. This has caused a ripple effect since the Toronto Blue Jays have now gone to a 4-man rotation with Trevor Richards getting bullpen day starts. This has hurt Chris Bassitt the most mightily as well, especially against left-handed hitters. Kevin Gausman Jose Berrios and surprisingly Yusei Kikuchi have managed to pitch quite nicely since Manoah went to the Florida Complex League.
Kikuchi in fact was magnificent on Sunday night going 7 full innings and giving up just two hits to the Oakland Athletics. He has been the only pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays to pitch at least 5 innings in every start this season. Unlike last season Kikuchi may still give up a home run or two but they are solo shots and not three-run shots like last season.
The Toronto Blue Jays bullpen has indeed been pretty decent as well. Jordan Romanow leads all of MLB with 23 saves thus far. The worry is being used too much in too many games with just the four starters. Hyun Jin Ryu is still working his way back to the roster after his Tommy John surgery. He has looked great and is supposed to be in excellent shape as well. However, he is still not going to be ready until after the all-star break at the earliest. The Toronto Blue Jays have very limited pitching resources and that fact belongs to the general manager Ross Atkins. Atkins needs to find a starter.
The Bats
The hitting has been hit or miss all season long. Bo Bichette has been the best hitter by far for the Toronto Blue Jays. He leads MLB with over 50 opposite field hits which leads MLB by 19 opposite field hits over anyone else.
The problem before the Oakland Athletics series has been Valdimir Guerrero Jr who finally hit a home run at the new Rogers Center field. He actually hit two home runs against the Athletics. Waiting 31 home games for a home run from Guerrero Jr was far too long. Hopefully, Guerrero Jr has finally figured out he was simply pushing too hard for the big hit instead of letting pitchers make their mistakes, and like his father when you make a mistake against Guerrero Jr the ball tends to leave the yard in a quick fashion.
The Toronto Blue Jays enter this series against the San Francisco Giants with a 43- 36 record something not expected. The good news is this is the exact record the Toronto Blue Jays had back in 2015 when they went on to win the division.
This is the time for the Toronto Blue Jays to stop dallying about and put a hurt on opponents coming to Rogers Center.
