The news broke last Monday just after 7pm EST; Alek Manoah was being called up by the Blue Jays, to get the start on Wednesday night against the Yankees, at Yankee Stadium.
After an impressive Spring training, the Blue Jays assigned Manoah to Triple-A to start the season. This came as a little bit of a surprise to fans, considering that Manoah had never pitched above High-A ball. With no minor league season last year, assigning minor leaguers to appropriate sites this year may have been more challenging. However, the Jays felt that Manoah was ready for Triple-A – and boy was he ever. He pitched three games for the Buffalo Bisons, went six innings in each of them, and gave up only one run on seven hits, across all three games. He also had 27 strikeouts and only 3 walks. After each dominant outing, discussions grew amongst Jays fans as to whether or not Manoah would, or should, be called up this year.
When the season began, I did not think he would be called up this year, let alone this early in the season. Between his impressive starts, and the Jays’ clear need for starting pitching, Manoah’s pace to the show drastically sped up. This isn’t to say the Jays are rushing him just because their back-end starters have been bad. They wouldn’t have called him up if they didn’t feel he was ready, and would be a positive addition to the team.
He was set to pitch Wednesday evening in the Bronx, however, mother nature had other plans. The game got rained out, forcing the Jays to play a doubleheader on Thursday with Manoah starting game one. His outing started off shaky as he would walk the first batter he faced on four pitches. After that, however, he became dialed in. He then struck out Rougned Odor on three pitches to record his first big league strikeout. He followed that up by striking out Yankee’s slugger Aaron Judge on a fastball that had Judge take one of the ugliest swings of his career. Manoah would go on to pitch six scoreless innings, with only allowing two singles, and striking out seven. Under the bright lights of Yankee Stadium, with his friends and family in the stands cheering him on as he baffled the Yankee’s lineup, he couldn’t have asked for a better debut to his major league career.
Manoah just blowing one by Aaron Judge 😯 pic.twitter.com/IkE7GgIZyo
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) May 27, 2021
If his impressive performance on the field didn’t make you a fan, his postgame comments would have. In his post-game interview with Sportsnet’s Hazel Mae, he recalled of times where his mother would “not eat dinner to feed me and my brother.” He would go on to talk about the most important thing young players need in order to achieve their dreams. “Their parents probably can’t pay for that travel team, can’t pay for that brand new bat or that glove or things like that. But my goal in life is to inspire all those kids to be able to let them know that, hey, man, your dreams can come true. You don’t need the best bat. All you need is heart, give it all you got, work as hard as you can, compete every day.”
His family’s sacrifices and his hard work had paid off. He just made his major league debut in one of the biggest stadiums in the league and kept one of the best offences off-balance. It is just one start, and we will see how he progresses throughout the season, but he is someone to be excited about. As the Jays’ number 5 prospect, he is penciled in to be a big part of the Jays’ rotation moving forward, and he has now gotten the opportunity. His next start will be Wednesday June 2nd against the Marlins, and we will see what happens from here on out, but one thing is for sure – Manoah Mania is off and running.
Great article bro!
Thank you very much. I appreciate it.