Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Alek Manoah was once in contention for the Cy Young Award, but his 2023 season could not have gone much worse, and he spoke about what it was like to go through the struggles last season after reporting to spring training ahead of what is hopefully a bounce back season in 2024.
“For me, that's a lot of growth, but this game tends to be tough over and over again,” Alek Manoah said, via Rob Longley of the Toronto Sun. “… 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? At one point, these guys were throwing every four days and just piggybacking off of each other… that was the tough part… I wanted to be there helping those guys. For me I was just trying to find anything I could do to get back.”
The Blue Jays had hoped that Manoah would continue on the trajectory he had been on from the previous two seasons. It got so bad in 2023 that he was sent to the minor leagues to try to get himself right. Manoah named a few points in the season that were especially tough for him.
“Watching the team go to the playoffs — celebrating clinching that playoff berth at the end of the year — that was tough,” Manoah said, via Longley. “And after opening day when (the Cardinals) kicked the s**t out of me, those were moments that really sucked.”
Manoah's season started with a rough outing against the Cardinals in 2023. He hopes to start out on the right foot in his first start for the Blue Jays in 2024 when the start of the season comes around.
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