What's Wrong With Alek Manoah?

The Blue Jays ace has had a disappointing start to the season.

A year ago, former West Virginia star Alek Manoah took the MLB by storm. He quickly developed into not only one of the best young pitchers in the bigs but one of the best pitchers in the game, regardless of age.

He finished a dominant rookie season with a 16-7 record in 31 starts, owning a WHIP of 0.99 and an ERA of 2.24. The all-star struck out 180 hitters compared to just 51 walks in 196.2 innings of work and was a major part of Toronto clinching a playoff spot in the American League. 

At the end of spring training, Manoah was informed by manager John Schneider that he would get the honor of starting Opening Day, reaching yet another milestone that most pitchers his age don't typically achieve. Unfortunately, it was a relatively brief outing as the St. Louis Cardinals knocked him out of the game after just 3.1 innings, pushing across five runs on nine hits, two of which were home runs. 

There wasn't much concern with the poor outing from the folks in Toronto after Opening Day. Pitchers have days like that every once in a while and for a guy getting the ball on Opening Day for the first time, some nerves come with that. He bounced back strong tossing seven innings of scoreless ball against the Royals in his next start but since then, it's been a bit of a trainwreck. 

Manoah has just one quality start (6+ IP & 3 or fewer ER) in his last ten starts. He only had one bad start in April where he gave up seven runs on nine hits to the Rays but he wasn't pitching deep enough into games. Walks became an issue and that was the theme of his dreadful month of May where he gave up a free pass to 21 batters in 26.1 innings. 

His slider, which has been such a dominant pitch dating back to his time at WVU, doesn't have the same type of movement that it once did. Once the slider goes flat, it makes things a whole heck of a lot easier for major league hitters to attack the fastball. 

It doesn't appear a the Blue Jays are considering optioning him down to AAA Buffalo but maybe putting him on a pitch count/reducing his workload could be what unlocks the All-Star stuff he has in that right arm.

For more insight into Manoah's struggles, check out this write-up from Ethan Diamandas of Inside the Blue Jays on Sports Illustrated/FanNation.

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