TORONTO – A gruesome pitching line for Alek Manoah in his first competitive outing since being demoted earlier this month left the Toronto Blue Jays focusing on the big right-hander’s process over results.
Manoah allowed a jaw-dropping 11 runs on 10 hits and two walks over 2.2 innings Tuesday in a Florida Complex League outing against the Yankees, with two home runs against and three strikeouts. While some balls in play that should have been outs were surely turned into hits by the rookie-level ball defenders behind him, the results don’t exactly point to the hope-for springboard outing.
"First outing, today, really in a game, game,” said manager John Schneider. “Yeah, you want the results to be great, but I think you're also really just focusing on things that he's been working on the last couple of weeks. Hopefully the next one you can kind of build a little bit of momentum. But just pleased with the stuff that he has been working on that he did in the game.”
Those areas of focus include maintaining a delivery closer to the one he used the past two years, throwing strikes, pitching with tempo and increased velocity, which according to Schneider were “all positive.”
Another point of emphasis for Manoah is regaining the slider which was such a crucial weapon for him during his rapid ascent to stardom, and that remains a work in progress.
The result is a reminder of why the Blue Jays are being patient with the 25-year-old, ensuring his game is in a good place before rushing him back to the majors to plug a hole in the rotation. His absence led to a slight reshuffling Tuesday, with Chris Bassitt pushed back from Wednesday to Thursday and replaced by a bullpen game initially scheduled for Saturday.
That gives Bassitt, Jose Berrios and Yusei Kikuchi an extra day of rest before their next starts but otherwise doesn’t alter much, with only one more bullpen game – on July 8 at Detroit – before the all-star break.
Bassitt is coming off three consecutive tough starts and he, in particular, may very well benefit most from an extra day of rest.
“I think the guys have been handling it very well,” said Schneider. “The fact that we have veteran guys to kind of step in and approach this the way they have is helpful. But you also want to take their health and performance into consideration and try to protect your bullpen as much as you can, too. It's a balancing act a little bit, but the guys have been great with it.”
The Blue Jays, as a whole, will be great with returning to a normal rotation once Manoah gets back, whenever that might be. There had been some thought that he could be ready for that Canada Day start July 1, but Tuesday’s outing suggested that he needs more runway.
Exactly how much down the line that can has been kicked is a good question, but the Blue Jays insisted that they liked much of what they saw and “the rest of the stuff you can kind of take it with a grain of salt,” said Schneider. “You factor today into it and we're very pleased with the work that he's put in, results aside today. All the stuff that we've been talking about between him, Pete (Walker, the pitching coach), me, he's going in the right direction.”
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