Manoah fights to leave his puzzling 2023 behind
PITCHER SAYS WORK ON PHYSICAL, MENTAL PARTS OF HIS PERFORMANCE HAVE HIM ‘IN A GOOD SPOT’
It’s a quiet, almost blissful Sunday morning at the Blue Jays’ player development complex.
The two team buses have pulled out of the parking lot for a road game in Tampa against the New York Yankees.
On Field 1, the guts of the team are taking defensive drills — Bo Bichette, Vlad Guerrero Jr, Cavan Biggio, Justin Turner and Santiago Espinal ring the infield as coaches line baseballs their way.
And further out on Field 2, Alek Manoah is preparing for what will be an electric bullpen session, a boisterous sequence that will serve as his final preparation for his first Grapefruit League start Tuesday against the Tigers in Lakeland.
The wounds of 2023 have mostly healed now and it is time for Manoah to resume attack mode, a mindset clearly dominating his crisp workout with veteran catcher Danny Jansen on the receiving end.
Determined to return to being a force in the Jays rotation, Manoah not only looks good physically, but on the mental side is channelling some of the positivity that helped set him on a meteoric rise to become the ace of the Toronto staff heading into last season.
But from the opening day assignment of 2023 — when Manoah was rocked in St. Louis — to a pair of demotions, it was a season that ranged from humbling to humiliating for the Florida native. Now, though, the tank seems full again as Manoah prepares to not only return to the Jays rotation, but to re-establish himself as a pitching force in the American League.
“With everything in life, you have to try and learn from the negatives and find positives from every negative,” Manoah said. “That’s something I had always done and I kind of got away from it a little bit.
“It’s something I’m definitely getting back to — washing it away and continue to move forward in a positive direction.”
It was particularly difficult last season when he came to spring training with mechanics askew and never truly found a way to get them aligned.
One particularly tough moment came in the weeks after June 6, the first demotion which, owing to a lack of organizational starting depth, left the Jays with a four-man rotation for almost a month.
“I totally think the toughest part was that on our team we had probably the best starting pitchers and if I could have just been serviceable, I feel we could have gone a lot further, you know?” Manoah said. “At one point, these guys were throwing every four days and just piggybacking off of each other. I wanted to be there helping those guys.”
Following his second demotion in August, things appeared to really unravel, with many even questioning Manoah’s future with the club. He didn’t report to Buffalo initially and didn’t pitch in a game for the remainder of 2023.
“For me, it was a lot of prayer,” Manoah said. “It was something where I felt God kept telling me I wouldn’t put your feet here if they weren’t supposed to be there. So it was be where you are mentally, physically and emotionally. Do everything you can every day and it will work itself out.”
It’s not the first time Manoah has had a setback in his baseball life, just the most dramatic one. Another occasion took place during his sophomore season of college ball at West Virginia. The circumstances and stakes were vastly different, however.
“I mean, you’re a college kid with no money and you might not have a scholarship the next year and all that stuff, and so that was a fight,” said Manoah, who righted that ship to eventually become a first-round draft pick. “But it’s really tough struggling in the big leagues ... You might have a little more security, but just as hard as it is to get here, it’s hard to stay here. It’s how you weather that storm and find a way to dance in the rain.”
As for those 2023 struggles, Manoah was willing to pull back the curtain and try to put into words what went awry.
“It was like one week we were constantly trying to figure something out and another week trying to figure something else out and then going backwards,” Manoah said. “For the most part you have good mental cues to fall back on when things are going south, but definitely trying to remake an entire mechanism is tough when you’re fighting yourself 90 per cent of the time and you look up and (Angels star) Mike Trout is in the box.”
For the most part, Manoah is done thinking about the past now and ready to channel some of the brashness that has worked for him in his still young career.
And with that, it’s on to the next.
Manoah’s final bullpen session before his first spring training start was something to see. Working with his veteran catcher, the pair cycled through his arsenal, with Jansen offering encouragement and advice.
It had Manoah buzzing. “I feel like I’m in a good spot,” Manoah said. “I just want to transfer that into games and transfer it into the season to help this team.”