In a rather shocking turn of events, the Toronto Blue Jays sent their ace, Alek Manoah, to the minor leagues on Tuesday afternoon.
He will be reporting to the Jays’ team in the Florida Complex League, a rookie-level circuit.
The decision comes after the right-hander had a disastrous outing against the Houston Astros in which he allowed six earned runs in 0.1 innings.
The problem goes beyond his last start, though.
He has a 6.36 ERA for the season in 58 innings, with an equally horrible 6.52 Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP).
Last year, he allowed 16 home runs in 196.2 frames, and he is already up to 11 long-balls conceded this season.
Fans weighed in on the Jays’ decision via Twitter.
Some people were extremely positive after finding out the news:
It will be good for him in the long run. Hard to make major adjustments in the majors when your struggling that much. He can go down and work on his stuff and back up his confidence with out the weight of the team’s success on his shoulders. He will be back better then ever.
— Brando (@BrandoBarrett89) June 6, 2023
Hopefully it will take some of the pressure off of him and he can figure things out. He has so much talent, so much drive and seems to be a genuinely good human being. Good luck Alek!
— Josiebet (@Josiebet2) June 6, 2023
Others, however, not so much:
In this precise moment, the Blue Jays took that decision pic.twitter.com/nYd0BTGnUU
— Eduardo (@EduardoAbrams) June 6, 2023
Blue Jays insider Keegan Matheson shared his thoughts about what the Jays might be thinking by sending Manoah to the Complex League.
Sending Alek Manoah to the complex league is easy to call "the Roy Halladay treatment", but again, they're very different pitchers and situations.
In Dunedin, Manoah will be able to use the complex, the pitching lab and the million other resources.
This is a full, total reset.
— Keegan Matheson (@KeeganMatheson) June 6, 2023
By the look of things, Manoah will be in the minors for a while.
He has looked completely off, so it’s perhaps the right move.
That appears to be the common sentiment among Jays fans: he needs a reset.
Good call to send him down to complex rather than AAA. He needs time to work this out
— Randeep Randhawa (@RandeepRandhawa) June 6, 2023
Everybody knows that Manoah is an asset if he is healthy and his mind and focus are in the right place.
It might take a while, but perhaps he needs some time to work on his pitching mechanics.
There is no reason to think he won’t eventually return and resemble the pitcher he was in 2021 and 2022: a true ace.
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