It looks like Manoah might not pitch again for Blue Jays this season
It’s hard to imagine a return right now for Alek Manoah and the Toronto Blue Jays this season.
Yesterday, the Toronto Blue Jays placed the starting pitcher on the temporarily inactive list with the Buffalo Bisons, as per multiple reports.
Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith reports that Manoah remains with the Bisons, but is currently not on their active roster.
Alek Manoah is still with the triple-A Bisons per source. This move freed up a AAA roster spot while Manoah builds back up. https://t.co/R4OiM67f9i
— Ben Nicholson-Smith (@bnicholsonsmith) September 5, 2023
For a quick refresher, it’s been quite the up-and-down season — admittedly, mostly down — for one of the most dynamic young pitchers Toronto has seen in this generation.
One year removed from finishing second in the American League Cy Young race, Manoah has a record of 3-9 with an ERA of 5.87 and 79 strikeouts in 19 appearances this season at the major league level. He last pitched for the Blue Jays on August 10, his final appearance in a six-game stretch back with Toronto after spending about a month in June and early July at the team’s Dunedin-based minor league complex.
Over that six-game stretch, Manoah put up an ERA of 4.91 and a record of 2-2 before ultimately being sent to Buffalo, though he has yet to pitch there since.
But will the team simply run out of time for Manoah’s comeback to happen this season?
There are just 18 games left for the Bisons, and 24 regular season games left for the Blue Jays. Assuming regular rest — and even if he returned to the Bisons’ active roster later this week — it’s hard to imagine him getting in more than two or three starts there at the absolute most.
The Bisons are set to miss the postseason, while Toronto finds themselves right in the thick of the American League playoff race, currently sitting half a game back of the final Wild Card spot.
And throwing Manoah into the mix right now for the Jays doesn’t seem to make much sense either. The team’s starters currently possess an ERA of 3.84, fourth best in the major leagues. With every game right now being life-or-death, it’s hard to imagine Toronto finding a way to trust Manoah this year once again.
Maybe we see a miracle, and Manoah ends up pitching high-leverage moments again for the team in the very near future. But as the tea leaves read right now, it’s hard to imagine that path over the course of the next month.
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