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The demotion that would have been unimaginable 12 months ago took place shortly after noon on Tuesday afternoon, unfolding in the tidy digs that are the Rogers Centre office of Blue Jays manager John Schneider.
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Yes, Alek Manoah didn’t take word that he was being optioned to the Florida Complex League well, as you would expect of the defiant and driven Jays starter.
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And no, he didn’t throw anything.
After 13 mostly miserable starts, the Jays did what was increasingly becoming inevitable and left two giant questions in the crater of Manoah’s departure.
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First: Will it be weeks, months or longer before the 25-year-old returns both to form and then the roster.
And second: How in the world did the Jays get to a place where the organization has such meagre starting pitching depth, a dearth that could compromise their season of large expectations?
But first to Manoah, who following Monday’s one-out outing against the Astros — the shortest of his big-league career — vowed that he would make his next scheduled start this weekend.
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His bosses felt otherwise and sharpened the hook overnight and Tuesday morning, then issuing a demotion that did not, predictably, land softly.
“He was upset because of the competitor that he is,” Schneider said of what had to be an uneasy conversation to have, one made alongside pitching coach Pete Walker but absent general manager Ross Atkins.
“It wasn’t an easy conversation. He understands that the performance hasn’t really been there and wants to really be in a position to help the team win.
“He took it about as good as he could take it.”
Which is to say, not well.
And perhaps that fire will be what gets him back to the bigs sooner and, in the opinion of one of his teammates, perhaps even better than ever.
“The way that guy competes is like nobody I’ve ever seen,” relief pitcher Adam Cimber told the Toronto Sun. “Even when he’s out there and he doesn’t have his best stuff, he competes.
“He’ll take this for what it is and it will probably put a chip on his shoulder. I think that’s when he’s at his best.”
Which is not where he’s been of late. The once unmistakable confidence that translated into Manoah’s often lethal attacking of the strike zone had been replaced by a tentativeness borne out of what has to be considered an erosion of confidence.
Rather than send him to pitch at triple-A, the Jays opted for the laboratory of their Dunedin spring headquarters where he will be poked, prodded and collaborated upon — to use the organization’s buzzword — until he figures it out.
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Will it be days? Weeks? Months? Nobody is saying because nobody knows, but Schneider made it clear that it won’t be until he can return and be the force that helped him to a breakout all-star season in 2022.
Perhaps telling was Schneider essentially admitting that the move was coming — especially absent any upturn in Manoah’s lagging form, which began on opening day and never truly eased.
“It’s not a knee-jerk reaction,” Schneider said in his game-day meeting with the media while the Manoah news beamed on the mammoth TVs in the room as it was dissected on MLB Network’s Off Base. “We want to make sure we are doing everything we can do to get better and feel that this is the proper initial step.”
Schneider said that Manoah will work alongside many Jays staffers with Walker and assistant pitching coach Jeff Ware monitoring the progress via video.
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If there is encouragement, it’s that some of Manoah’s best prep work with the club came during the 2020 COVID season when he was tutored at the team’s alternate training site in a highly controlled environment.
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If there’s concern, it’s that there is no set timeline for a return and worse for an under-achieving team, there is no viable organizational answer for the fifth spot in the rotation.
Until Tuesday, Schneider was saying what one does of the Manoah mess, with an almost wishful-thinking narrative that things would get better on their own. But with a 1-7 record and form that was getting worse, the eyes knew better and the potential solution became more obvious by the outing.
“He’s been grinding for a while now,” Cimber said. “So going down there can be a good thing. I don’t think any player would say getting optioned is a good thing for them, in the moment at least.
“But a year from now, he’ll look back and say he made the best of the situation. I have no doubt he’ll get to work down there and figure it out. He’s too big of a competitor to let this hold him down.”
Knowing Manoah as we have since his rookie years in the pros with the Vancouver Canadians, we wouldn’t bet against it. The Jays are left to make the same wager — and much of their season’s fortunes may rely upon it cashing.
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https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiZmh0dHBzOi8vdG9yb250b3N1bi5jb20vc3BvcnRzL2Jhc2ViYWxsL3Rvcm9udG8tYmx1ZS1qYXlzL3N0cnVnZ2xpbmctc3RhcnRlci1hbGVrLW1hbm9haC1zZW50LXRvLW1pbm9yc9IBAA?oc=5
2023-06-06 23:37:30Z
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