adplus-dvertising
Connect with us

Sports

Alek Manoah and Blue Jays reportedly at odds over August demotion

Published

 on

While the Toronto Blue Jays have been in the midst of a playoff race, there has been uncertainty bubbling in the background about what’s going on with Alek Manoah.

The 25-year-old was demoted to the minor leagues for the second time in 2023 on Aug. 11, but has yet to appear with the Buffalo Bisons. He did not report to Buffalo in a timely manner, which was initially reported as the result of extensive medical testing. But when he was put on the temporarily inactive list at Triple-A, questions began to arise about whether he was done pitching for the season.

On Monday, it was confirmed that his season was likely over, but the plot thickened when Blue Jays radio voice Ben Wagner joined “Blair & Barker” on Sportsnet 590 The Fan.

Wagner brought some clarity to the situation, revealing that Manoah took umbrage with his demotion — and that was a driving force in his delayed journey to Buffalo.

“It was clear that this was not going to be a direction both parties were going to agree on,” Wagner said. “And that’s why there was such a gap between Alek being optioned, failing to report to Triple-A Buffalo, and then eventually working things out.”

Not only does that poke a significant hole in the medical test story, it paints the picture of two sides in conflict and it doesn’t look like Manoah has much of a leg to stand on.

Alek Manoah seems to be in conflict with the Blue Jays front office. (Photo by Matt Thomas/San Diego Padres/Getty Images)
Alek Manoah seems to be in conflict with the Blue Jays front office. (Photo by Matt Thomas/San Diego Padres/Getty Images)

According to Wagner, Manoah’s camp didn’t like the fact that the option was “performance-related.”

It’s understandable that the starter — who has projected fierce confidence throughout his career — felt like he could work through his issues at the major-league level, and contribute to his team, but his production to that point was awful. Meanwhile, the Blue Jays were in the middle of a tight playoff race, as they are to this day.

When Toronto demoted Manoah for the second time, he was below replacement level by fWAR (-0.4) and bWAR (-1.1) for the season, with minimal recent progress made. In his last five starts, he’d averaged less than five innings per outing, produced a 5.79 ERA, and allowed 44 base runners in 23.1 innings.

At the same time, Hyun-jin Ryu had returned looking better than the team could’ve anticipated — and its bullpen and top-of-the-rotation guys were too strong to justify using a six-man rotation over the long term.

There simply isn’t an argument to be made that Manoah deserved to keep his spot. The starter seemingly refused to accept that reality, and that has had negative consequences for both player and team.

By failing to report to Buffalo, Manoah missed an opportunity to try to iron things out during a difficult season. While that’s not a glamorous way for a guy who came third in 2022 Cy Young voting to spend the last seven weeks of his season, it might’ve been productive. If one of the Blue Jays starters got hurt, Manoah also could’ve put himself in a position to return to the majors.

As it stands, the club is without a true sixth starter and would have to lean on some kind of bullpen game if things went sideways for someone in their top five.

Toronto’s Triple-A affiliate also suffered by having Manoah on the roster but unable to pitch, shortening its pitching staff for no good reason. That eventually led to the temporarily inactive designation, but the team was short a man for a meaningful stretch.

Manoah has finally made his way to Buffalo, but Wagner said he was just “going through things” down there having not pitched a bullpen or side session since his arrival.

The one factor left unsaid in all of this might be the biggest one from Manoah’s perspective. Because of his demotions this season, his service time status could change significantly. If he’d spent all of 2023 in Toronto he’d likely attain Super Two status, allowing him to go through salary arbitration four times between 2024 and 2027.

Now, that could be off the table, meaning he’d earn the MLB minimum again in 2024 and begin his arbitration years in 2025. The difference would cost him millions of dollars. Next season the difference could be significant, and with the salary arbitration system based on raises, his 2025 salary would be significantly higher if he got a bump from a 2024 number than it would be if he started the process from scratch. Losing out on Super Two would have a compounding effect for Manoah that would affect his bottom line in each of the next four seasons.

There have undoubtedly been cases of teams demoting and recalling players strategically in an effort to manipulate their service time and ultimately pay them less. The Blue Jays themselves earned accusations of doing just that with Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

It’s possible that Manoah feels like there’s something fishy going on with his own service time. While that’s understandable, that’s really not the game the Blue Jays are playing in this case. Toronto would’ve loved for Manoah to replicate his 2022 season for them as they fight for their playoff lives. There is no world in which the team was looking for an excuse to demote him in hopes of saving some money.

This is a win-now team that entered 2023 with championship aspirations under the assumption that Manoah would be one of the biggest individual drivers of its success. The Blue Jays’ demotions of Manoah in 2023 came out of necessity.

If he ends up losing his Super Two status that will have a minor positive effect on Toronto’s payroll flexibility between 2024 and 2027. A better team-building outcome in those years — as well as 2023 — would be to have an ace-level pitcher.

Manoah hasn’t approached that level this season, or even cleared the bar for viability as a fifth starter — especially considering the appealing alternative the Blue Jays have in Ryu. That’s the reason he found himself in the minors.

The way this season has gone has been awful for player and team alike. Manoah’s massive underperformance has hurt the Blue Jays just as the demotions have hurt the pitcher. In a best-case scenario for both sides, each would see each other as a partner working through a nightmare season and towards a career renaissance for Manoah.

Unfortunately for everyone involved, that doesn’t seem to be where we’re at right now.

 

728x90x4

Source link

Continue Reading

Sports

Washington Capitals 3-2 win ends Dallas Stars’ winning streak

Published

 on

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Tom Wilson, Dylan Strome and Taylor Raddysh scored to help the Washington Capitals end the Dallas Stars’ season-opening winning streak at four with a 3-2 victory Thursday night.

Wilson’s goal was his third in three games, Strome his second of the season and Raddysh his first since joining the team in free agency last summer. Charlie Lindgren made 22 saves as the Capitals wrapped up this early homestand with back-to-back wins.

The Stars fell from the ranks of the league’s unbeaten teams despite a short-handed goal by Colin Blackwell and one at even strength from Jason Robertson. Rookie Oskar Bäck set up Blackwell for his first NHL point.

Casey DeSmith was screened on two of the three goals he allowed on 26 shots.

LIGHTNING 4, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 3

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Nikita Kucherov scored the winning goal with less than a minute to play just 1:27 after Brandon Hagel had tied it and Tampa Bay rallied to beat Vegas.

Kucherov’s second goal of the game with 55 seconds left was his sixth of the season.

Janis Moser had a goal and two assists for the Lightning, who remain unbeaten. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves.

Brayden McNabb, Pavel Dorofeyev and Ivan Barbashev had goals for Vegas. Adin Hill turned aside 21 shots.

Jack Eichel, with two assists on Thursday, now has 10 points this season in five games and reached reached double-digit points faster than any other player in Vegas history. He is the 10th U.S.-born player to accomplish the feat.

After Barbashev put Vegas up 3-2 early in the second, Hagel pulled Tampa Bay even at 3 with 2:22 remaining in the third.

BLUE JACKETS 6, SABRES 4

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Kirill Marchenko and Mathieu Olivier each had a goal and an assist and Daniil Tarasov made 21 saves to help Columbus to a win over Buffalo.

Yegor Chinakhov, Adam Fantilli, Zachary Aston-Reese and Damon Severson also scored for Columbus, and Zach Werenski added two assists.

Ryan McLeod, Owen Power and JJ Peterka scored for Buffalo, and Jiri Kulich added his first NHL goal. Devon Lev stopped 19 shots for the Sabres (1-5-1), who have lost two straight road games and five of their first six overall.

CANUCKS 3, FLORIDA 2, OT

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — J.T. Miller scored 2:09 into overtime and Vancouver got their first win of the season, beating Florida.

Teddy Blueger and Quinn Hughes had goals for Vancouver, with Kevin Lankinen stopping 26 shots.

Anton Lundell got his fourth goal in the last three games for Florida and Jesper Boqvist also scored for the Panthers, who got 30 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky.

Florida remained without forwards Aleksander Barkov (lower body) and Matthew Tkachuk (illness).

DEVILS 3, SENATORS 1

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Jacob Markstrom stopped 30 shots and lost his shutout bid in the final minutes as New Jersey beat Ottawa.

Erik Haula, Nathan Bastian and Paul Cotter scored for the Devils, who won for the third time in four games and improved to 5-2-0.

The Senators, who were coming off an 8-7 overtime victory against Los Angeles on Monday, struggled to beat Markstrom.

Brady Tkachuk was the only scorer for the Senators, beating Markstrom, with a power-play goal with 65 seconds remaining in the third period.

Anton Forsberg, making his second straight start and hoping to rebound after getting pulled Monday, made 32 saves in the loss.

Haula opened the scoring early in the second period and Bastian added a short-handed goal, giving New Jersey a 2-0 lead after 40 minutes. Cotter scored midway through the third.

RANGERS 5, RED WING 2

DETROIT (AP) — Artemi Panarin had his eighth career hat trick and New York rolled to a victory over Detroit.

Panarin became the first Rangers player to have multiple points in the first four games of a season. He scored twice on the power play. Vincent Trocheck also had a power- play goal and assisted on all of Panarin’s goals.

Jonathan Quick made 29 saves in his season debut. Victor Mancini also scored.

The Rangers have won the last five meetings, including twice this week. New York had a 4-1 home victory over Detroit on Monday night.

Moritz Seider and J.T. Compher scored for Detroit. Red Wings goalie Cam Talbot was pulled in the second period after allowing five goals.

KINGS 4, CANADIENS 1

MONTREAL (AP) — David Rittich made 26 saves a night after being benched in the second period in Toronto, helping road-weary Los Angeles snap a three-game losing streak with a victory over Montreal.

Los Angeles improved to 2-1-2 on a season-opening, seven-game trip necessitated by arena renovations.

Rittich rebounded after allowing four goals on 14 shots in a 6-2 loss to the Maple Leafs. Alex Laferriere, Mikey Anderson, Andreas Englund and Adrian Kempe scored.

Justin Barron scored for Montreal (2-3-0). Sam Montembeault stopped 28 shots. He made a save on Kevin Fiala on a penalty shot.

BLUES 1, ISLANDERS 0, OT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Joel Hofer made 34 saves and assisted on Jake Neighbours’ goal at 2:04 of overtime in St. Louis victory over New York.

Hofer had his second career shutout in his and the team’s second overtime victory of the season.

Philip Broberg carried the puck into the New York zone and made a centering pass to Neighbours for the winner.

Islanders goalie Ilya Sorkin made 29 saves.

Blues defenseman Nick Leddy sat out because of a lower-body injury, the first game he has missed this season. Leddy played in all 82 games last season.

OILERS 4, PREDATORS 2

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Brett Kulak scored twice and Connor McDavid added his first goal of the season to lead Edmonton to a victory over reeling Nashville.

Jeff Skinner also scored and Calvin Pickard made 25 saves for the defending Western Conference champion Oilers, who have won consecutive games after beginning the season with a three-game skid.

Filip Forsberg and Jonathan Marchessault scored and Juuse Saros made 32 saves for Nashville (0-4).

Forsberg’s goal midway through the first period gave Nashville its first lead of the season. That lasted less than six minutes before Kulak tied it.

Kulak sealed it with an empty-netter in the final minute for the defenseman’s first career two-goal game.

BLACKHAWKS 4, SHARKS 2

CHICAGO (AP) — Tyler Bertuzzi and Nick Foligno each scored a power-play goal, and Chicago beat San Jose.

Taylor Hall and Jason Dickinson also scored for Chicago. Connor Bedard and Teuvo Teravainen each had two assists.

Hall, who missed most of last season because of right knee surgery, put the Blackhawks in front 4:20 into the first period. It was Hall’s first goal since Nov. 5 and No. 267 for his career.

Tyler Toffoli and Fabian Zetterlund scored for San Jose, which trailed 3-0 early in the second. William Eklund and Mikael Granlund had two assists each.

The Sharks dropped to 0-2-2 under Ryan Warsofsky, who was promoted to head coach in June.

Petr Mrazek had 20 saves for Chicago, and Vitek Vanecek made 23 stops for San Jose.

KRAKEN 6, FLYERS 4

SEATTLE (AP) — Eeli Tolvanen, Jordan Eberle, and Shane Wright scored three goals in less than three minutes in the second period and Seattle held off a Philadelphia rally in a victory.

Tolvanen’s goal broke a 2-2 tie at the 14:57 mark. Eberle made it a two-goal game with a goal at 17:44. Eight seconds later, Wright scored to give Seattle a three-goal lead.

Jared McCann tied the game at 2-2 with the first of Seattle’s four second-period goals.

Cam York and Jamie Drysdale scored to pull Philadelphia within 5-4 in the third period, but Oliver Bjorkstrand responded with a goal to push Seattle’s lead to two with just over five minutes left in the game.

Scott Laughton scored twice for the Flyers in the first period, while Brandon Montour scored one in for the Kraken.

Chandler Stephenson had an assist in his 500th NHL game. Seattle’s Philipp Grubauer had 21 saves.

Source link

Continue Reading

Sports

Canada’s Dabrowski, New Zealand’s Routliffe out of Japan Women’s Open after walkover

Published

 on

 

OSAKA, Japan – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe are out of the Japan Women’s Open tennis tournament.

Spain’s Cristina Bucsa and Romania’s Monica Niculescu advanced to the final on Thursday by way of walkover.

The fourth seeds were supposed to play the top-seeded Dabrowski and Routliffe in the semifinals.

Bucsa and Niculescu will next face third-seeded Ena Shibahara of Japan and Laura Siegemund of Germany in the final.

Dabrowski and Routliffe defeated Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Eri Hozumi in the quarterfinals 6-2, 6-4 on Wednesday to advance.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Source link

Continue Reading

Sports

Mountain West commissioner says she’s heartbroken over turmoil surrounding San Jose State volleyball

Published

 on

 

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Mountain West Conference Commissioner Gloria Nevarez said Thursday the forfeitures that volleyball teams are willing to take to avoid playing San Jose State is “not what we celebrate in college athletics” and that she is heartbroken over what has transpired this season surrounding the Spartans and their opponents.

Four teams have canceled games against San Jose State: Boise State, Southern Utah, Utah State and Wyoming, with none of the schools explicitly saying why they were forfeiting.

A group of Nevada players issued a statement saying they will not take the floor when the Wolf Pack are scheduled to host the Spartans on Oct. 26. They cited their “right to safety and fair competition,” though their school reaffirmed Thursday that the match is still planned and that state law bars forfeiture “for reasons related to gender identity or expression.”

All those schools, except Southern Utah, are in the Mountain West. New Mexico, also in the MWC, went ahead with its home match on Thursday night, which was won by the Spartans, 3-1, the team’s first victory since Sept. 24.

“It breaks my heart because they’re human beings, young people, student-athletes on both sides of this issue that are getting a lot of national negative attention,” Nevarez said in an interview with The Associated Press at Mountain West basketball media days. “It just doesn’t feel right to me.”

Republican governors of Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming have made public statements in support of the cancellations, citing a need for fairness in women’s sports. Former President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee in this year’s presidential race, this week referenced an unidentified volleyball match when he was asked during a Fox News town hall about transgender athletes in women’s sports.

“I saw the slam, it was a slam. I never saw a ball hit so hard, hit the girl in the head,” Trump replied before he was asked what can be done. “You just ban it. The president bans it. You just don’t let it happen.”

After Trump’s comment, San Diego State issued a statement that said “it has been incorrectly reported that an San Diego State University student-athlete was hit in the face with a volleyball during match play with San Jose State University. The ball bounced off the shoulder of the student-athlete, and the athlete was uninjured and did not miss a play.”

San Jose State has not made any direct comments about the politicians’ “fairness” references, and Nevarez did not go into details.

“I’m learning a lot about the issue,” Nevarez said. “I don’t know a lot of the language yet or the science or the understanding nationally of how this issue plays out. The external influences are so far on either side. We have an election year. It’s political, so, yeah, it feels like a no-win based on all the external pressure.”

The cancellations could mean some teams will not qualify for the conference tournament Nov. 27-30 in Las Vegas, where the top six schools are slated to compete for the league championship.

“The student-athlete (in question) meets the eligibility standard, so if a team does not play them, it’s a forfeit, meaning they take a loss,” Nevarez said.

Ahead of the Oct. 26 match in Reno. Nevada released a statement acknowledging that “a majority of the Wolf Pack women’s volleyball team” had decided to forfeit against San Jose State. The school said only the university can take that step but any player who decides not to play would face no punishment.

___

AP college sports:

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Source link

Continue Reading

Trending