Alek Manoah makes head-tilting claim on Blue Jays’ World Series run

The mystery of how Alek Manoah’s career with the Toronto Blue Jays went so sharply sideways may never truly be answered.

Manoah finished third in American League Cy Young Award voting in 2022, putting up 6.0 bWAR in his age-24 season. From that point forward, he pitched to a 5.40 ERA in 24 more starts with the Blue Jays, underwent Tommy John surgery, was optioned to Triple-A in three consecutive seasons, and has already been on two other teams’ rosters since being waived in September.

It had to be bittersweet for Manoah to see his old Blue Jays teammates competing in the World Series last year while he was waiting to see if he would last the full offseason on the 40-man roster for the Atlanta Braves. But Manoah also made a comment about that playoff run that is raising some eyebrows in baseball circles.

In a Wednesday feature by Sam Blum of The Athletic, Manoah asserted the influence he had on that iteration of the Blue Jays roster getting to the World Series, three years after he was last a meaningful contributor.

“Those are all my friends. A lot of those guys I called my brothers,” Manoah said, per Blum. “I rooted for them 100 percent. I wanted them to win it all.”

“I was a very big piece of that process, getting to that World Series run. I wasn’t able to be there like I wanted to.”

Manoah signed a major league deal with the Los Angeles Angels in December, and his sole focus at this point has to be making the opening day rotation, now more than a year removed from his Tommy John procedure.

To some degree, Manoah has a point about being a part of Toronto’s slow construction of a winning culture, both on the field and behind the scenes. But Blue Jays fans who were disappointed with how far Manoah fell after laying claim to the ace role at one point are justified in feeling a bit indignant about his claim.

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