Manoah Rocked in First Appearance in Florida Complex League

It's been a rough year for the former West Virginia star.

The downfall of Alek Manoah is something we've never really seen before in the history of Major League Baseball. 

The former West Virginia flamethrower dominated major league hitters, and some of the very best in the game after getting called up from Triple-A Buffalo. In his first full season in the bigs, Manoah didn't just evolve into the ace of the Toronto Blue Jays, he became one of the best pitchers in all of baseball.

Manoah posted a 2.24 ERA and owned a 16-7 record in 31 starts. He was named a Cy Young finalist at the end of the season, finishing third in the voting behind Justin Verlander and Dylan Cease. 

This spring, Manoah was awarded the honor of being named the Opening Day starter as the organization felt he was ready to take that next step and become a perennial All-Star. Unfortunately, things went as about as bad as you could possibly imagine. Manoah struggled with his command, particularly with his breaking balls and off-speed pitches, constantly driving up his pitch count and putting traffic on the base paths.  

Following a start earlier this month against the Houston Astros in which he recorded just one out and allowed six runs, Manoah was sent down to the Florida Complex League aka rookie ball. 

The idea behind it was to get Manoah to refocus and hone in on his mechanics, essentially putting him through a second spring training. Just when you think things couldn't possibly get worse for the former Mountaineer, well, they did. 

Manoah made his first start in the Florida Complex League and boy, it was bad. He gave up eleven runs on ten hits (two homers) in 2.2 innings pitched against a lineup that mainly consists of 17 and 18 year olds. 

Alek Manoah's first start in the Florida Complex League:

2.2 IP
11 ER
10 H
2 BB
3 K
2 HR pic.twitter.com/QuP0rb2OEa

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) June 27, 2023

It really makes you wonder, how in the world can a pitcher be so dominant, going from striking out Aaron Judge, Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani, etc. to struggling to get extremely young prospects out? Is there something seriously wrong mechanically? Is it in his head? It could be both, but I also feel like the pitch clock has something to do with it as well. 

Some pitchers have not adjusted well to it as they're not used to having to throw a pitch virtually every 16-18 seconds. It can really fatigue an arm and that, to me, is where the issue lies. A fatigued arm leaves pitches up and out over the heart of the plate. I haven't watched every single pitch of Manoah's starts this season, so I can't officially diagnose that as the primary problem but it makes sense if you think about it. 

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