After a solid start to the campaign, the Toronto Blue Jays have come crashing back down to earth. While the American League East is by far the best division in baseball at the moment, they're last right now with a 26-25 record and have gone just 2-8 in their last 10 games. That includes losing three of four to both the Tampa Bay Rays and the New York Yankees, two of their biggest rivals.

Swinging the bats has never been an issue for the Jays. The offense ranks top-10 in numerous categories. With the likes of Vladimir Guerrero Jr, Bo Bichette, George Springer, and others, Toronto has no shortage of guys who can produce at the plate.

Unfortunately, pitching is a big problem. The rotation is wildly inconsistent outside of Chris Bassitt and Kevin Gausman. That being said, here are two Blue Jays players fans are likely fed up with already nearly two months into the 2023 campaign.

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Alek Manoah

Victim number one. If you're a Blue Jays fan, you have loved Alek Manoah in the past. I mean, the big righty was absolutely fantastic in 2022, going 16-7 with a 2.24 ERA and finishing third in AL Cy Young voting. Unfortunately, this season is a completely different story. Manoah owns a 1-5 record and a career-worst 5.53 ERA in an MLB-high 11 starts.

While the former West Virginia standout has struggled with command in the past, it's on another level in 23′. He's surrendered 38 walks in 53.2 innings of work. For reference, he issued 51 free passes in all of last year. Yikes. Manoah is getting behind hitters far too often and that results in him putting these opponents in favorable counts where they're making the right-hander pay.

Manoah was the clear-cut ace in 22′. That is far from the case at the moment. The Blue Jays will continue to be patient with him because he is a special talent, but he really needs to figure it out soon because if Toronto is going to be a playoff team, they need one of their best arms to be consistent every fifth day.

Yusei Kikuchi

Yusei Kikuchi has been a rather average pitcher since coming over to the big leagues from Japan, compiling a 4.97 ERA. However, the Blue Jays paid him a whopping $36 million across three years to hopefully come in and throw some quality innings for them. 2022 was a nightmare for the southpaw, posting a 5.19 ERA and even getting promoted to the bullpen and Triple-A at one point.

Kikuchi made some big adjustments in Spring Training and has evidently improved his control. But, he's getting hit around more often than Toronto would like. The 31-year-old is 5-2 with a 4.56 ERA, allowing a Major League-high 14 home runs in just 10 starts. Needless to say, the long ball is a concern.

Don't get me wrong. Kikuchi is attacking hitters a lot more. That being said, the fastball and slider are both getting torched by the HR. The velocity on the heater is solid as well at 95 MPH. It simply comes down to keeping it down in the zone.

The Blue Jays have a strong front end of the rotation but then it gets dicey. Kikuchi for example had a string of three starts where he only gave up one earned run. Then across the last two outings, he's allowed eight earned and three bombs.

Is he going to start throwing shutouts? Probably not. However, if Kikuchi can at least keep opposing lineups out of the ballpark more often, it's going to do wonders for his ERA and overall success.