Toronto Blue Jays Pitcher Alek Manoah Officially Shut Down For Season After Injection

Alek Manoah was one of baseball's best young pitchers the past two years, but his tumultuous 2023 campaign has finally come to a close.
Toronto Blue Jays Pitcher Alek Manoah Officially Shut Down For Season After Injection
Toronto Blue Jays Pitcher Alek Manoah Officially Shut Down For Season After Injection /
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Alek Manoah has officially been shut down for the year, SportsNet and The Toronto Star reported Thursday.

The Toronto Blue Jays sent Manoah down to Triple-A Buffalo in August, although he never pitched in a game for the Bisons. He was evaluated for knee, back and right quad injuries, but team doctors never found structural damage in his pitching arm.

Still, Manoah received multiple injections in his right arm to reduce swelling and soreness over the past few weeks, which will keep him off the mound for the rest of the fall.

Manoah was 3-9 with a 5.87 ERA, 1.740 WHIP and 8.1 strikeouts per nine innings with Toronto in 2023.

It was such a shaky season that the Blue Jays also sent him down to the minors back in June. Manoah allowed 11 earned runs in 2.2 innings in Rookie ball, then one earned run in 5.0 innings with Double-A New Hampshire.

Upon his return to the big leagues, Manoah posted two quality starts in July before struggling and getting sent down again in August.

It was quite the fall from grace for Manoah, who is still just 25 years old.

Manoah went 9-2 with a 3.22 ERA, 1.048 WHIP and 10.8 strikeouts per nine innings across 20 starts in 2021. The 2019 first round pick finished eighth in AL Rookie of the Year that season.

The following year, Manoah finished 16-7 with a 2.24 ERA, 0.992 WHIP and 8.2 strikeouts per nine innings. The right-hander made his first All-Star Game that summer before finishing third in AL Cy Young voting and 17th in AL MVP voting.

Manoah had the fifth-lowest ERA in baseball over the course of those two seasons, trailing only Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, Tony Gonsolin and Julio Urías.

The Blue Jays are in the midst of a heated playoff race this fall, as they boast an 84.4% chance of making the postseason with 10 games to go, per FanGraphs. Manoah, as it stands, will not take the mound for Toronto as the club tries to win its first World Series in three decades

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Sam Connon
SAM CONNON

Sam Connon is a Staff Writer for Fastball on the Sports Illustrated/FanNation networks. He previously covered UCLA Athletics for Sports Illustrated/FanNation's All Bruins, 247Sports' Bruin Report Online, Rivals' Bruin Blitz, the Bleav Podcast Network and the Daily Bruin, with his work as a sports columnist receiving awards from the College Media Association and Society of Professional Journalists. Connon also wrote for Sports Illustrated/FanNation's New England Patriots site, Patriots Country, and he was on the Patriots and Boston Red Sox beats at Prime Time Sports Talk.