Alek Manoah of Toronto Blue Jays reacts in the dugout after being pulled against the Houston Astros during the first inning in their MLB game at the Rogers Centre on June 5, 2023 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Mark Blinch/Getty Images)
Staff Reports
World Baseball Network
The Toronto Blue Jays sent struggling starter Alek Manoah to the minor leagues Tuesday, a demotion that wasn’t a surprise.
What was a surprise was how deep into the minor leagues the Blue Jays sent him: all the way down to the Florida Complex League, the lowest level of affiliated baseball.
Manoah finished third in the American League Cy Young Award balloting in 2022 after posting a 2.24 ERA and an ERA+ of 168 in 196.2 innings of work across 31 starts, compiling a 16-7 record with 180 strikeouts, but has failed to impress this season, pitching just 58 innings across 13 starts with a 6.36 ERA and an ERA+ of 65.
The final blow came Monday night, when Manoah lasted just a third of an inning against Houston while allowing seven hits, six earned runs, and a walk while throwing 38 pitches to nine batters. Toronto lost the game 11-4.
“It’s not a knee-jerk reaction,” said manager John Schneider prior to Tuesday’s game. “Like I’ve been saying all along, we want to make sure we’re doing everything we can to help him get better, and we feel like that’s the proper first, initial step.”
The teams in the Florida Complex League play out of their parent MLB club’s spring training facilities, with the FCL Blue Jays playing out of the Bobby Mattick Training Center at Englebert Complex in Dunedin, Florida, where the Blue Jays hold spring training.