OAKLAND, Calif. — Alek Manoah is scheduled for June 17 surgery on the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, a procedure that leaves a massive hole in the Toronto Blue Jays’ rotation this year and for a significant chunk of next season, too.
Manager John Schneider revealed the news Friday, a day after the right-hander visited Dr. Keith Meister in Texas. Manoah will undergo either a full ligament replacement, known as Tommy John, or have a ligament repair with a brace.
A decision will be made once Meister can get a first-hand look at the ligament to assess the damage, as “you can only see so much on an MRI,” said Schneider.
Either way, an extended recovery awaits the 26-year-old, as return to play from Tommy John typically takes 12-18 months, while the repair can shorten that to as little as eight months.
Manoah underwent an MRI on May 30 and while a consult with Meister was scheduled after initial reads, they knew some type of surgery “was a possibility,” said Schneider.
“In that situation,” he added, “you're preparing for the worst, hoping for the best.”
Manoah left his May 29 start at the Chicago White Sox after his 24th pitch because of a “pinchy” sensation in his right elbow. He’d experienced some discomfort following his previous outing against the Detroit Tigers, but felt good enough to pitch between outings and told himself to really let it rip on the fateful 91.4-m.p.h., glove-side sinker.
“It sucks,” he said afterwards. “But I have my faith in God and I dealt with a lot of (expletive) this past year to get back to this point. And the game's tough, you know?”
The setback for Manoah comes just as he seemed to be turning the corner on a year and a half of tumult after a brilliant 2022 in which he was a Cy Young Award finalist. Manoah started 2023 slowly, was optioned to triple-A Buffalo twice, ended up on the temporarily inactive list with the Bisons and received injections in his shoulder after multiple medical exams couldn’t find any structural damage in his arm.
His ERA jumped from 2.24 in 196.2 innings to 5.87 in 87.1 frames but this off-season he remade himself physically, and after a shoulder issue slowed him during the spring, he started to resemble his former self, with 3.70 ERA in five outings with 26 strikeouts in 24.1 innings.
All that progress is on pause indefinitely now, leaving the Blue Jays scrambling to cover his rotation spot for the rest of the season, and likely part of next.
Trevor Richards threw two innings during the first start in his place, with Bowden Francis logging 3.1 innings of bulk relief, but the plans are “still fluid” for Sunday and beyond, with Yariel Rodriguez, currently on rehab at Buffalo, expected to be part of the solution.
“We'll see where we land bullpen-wise for Sunday and then go from there,” said Schneider. “Obviously we're monitoring what Yariel is doing. He's scheduled to pitch again Tuesday in Buffalo and hopefully get that pitch count up a little bit (toward 70) and we'll see how we land after that. Ideally you'd like for something to be pretty steady and keep everyone in working order in the bullpen. But I think we're ready to do it at least one more time.”
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