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)
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.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — DeMar DeRozan scored 27 points in a record-setting performance and the Sacramento Kings beat the Toronto Raptors 122-107 on Wednesday night.
Domantas Sabonis added 17 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds for his third triple-double of the season for Sacramento. He shot 6 for 6 from the field and 5 for 5 at the free-throw line.
Keegan Murray chipped in with 22 points and 12 rebounds, and De’Aaron Fox scored 21.
The 35-year-old DeRozan has scored at least 20 points in each of his first eight games with the Kings, breaking a franchise mark established by Chris Webber when he reached 20 in his first seven games with Sacramento in 1999.
DeRozan spent the past three seasons with the Chicago Bulls. The six-time All-Star also has played for Toronto and San Antonio during his 16-year NBA career.
RJ Barrett had 23 points to lead the Raptors. Davion Mitchell scored 20 in his first game in Sacramento since being traded to Toronto last summer.
Takeaways
Raptors: Toronto led for most of the first three quarters before wilting in the fourth. The Raptors were outscored 33-14 in the final period.
Kings: Fox played strong defense but struggled again shooting from the floor as he is dealing with a finger injury. Fox went 5 for 17 and just 2 of 8 on 3-pointers. He is 5 for 25 from beyond the arc in his last three games.
Key moment
The Kings trailed 95-89 early in the fourth before going on a 9-0 run that gave them the lead for good. DeRozan started the spurt with a jumper, and Malik Monk scored the final seven points.
Key stat
Sabonis had the eighth game in the NBA since at least 1982-83 with a triple-double while missing no shots from the field or foul line. The previous player to do it was Josh Giddey for Oklahoma City against Portland on Jan. 11.
Up next
Raptors: At the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday night, the third stop on a five-game trip.
VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Whitecaps are one win away from moving on to the next round of the Major League Soccer playoffs.
To get there, however, the Whitecaps will need to pull off the improbable by defeating the powerhouse Los Angeles FC for a second straight game.
Vancouver blanked the visitors 3-0 on Sunday to level their best-of-three first-round playoff series at a game apiece. As the matchup shifts back to California for a decisive Game 3 on Friday, the Whitecaps are looking for a repeat performance, said striker Brian White.
“We take the good and the bad from last game, learn from what we could have done better and go to LAFC with confidence and, obviously, with a whole lot of respect,” he said.
“We know that we can go there and give them a very good fight and hopefully come away with a win.”
The winner of Friday’s game will face the No. 4-seed Seattle Sounders in a one-game Western Conference semifinal on Nov. 23 or 24.
The ‘Caps finished the regular season eighth in the west with a 13-13-8 record and have since surprised many with their post-season play.
First, Vancouver trounced its regional rivals, the Portland Timbers, 5-0 in a wild-card game. Then, the squad dropped a tightly contested 2-1 decision to the top-seeded L.A. before posting a decisive home victory on Sunday.
Vancouver has scored seven goals this post-season, second only to the L.A. Galaxy (nine). Vancouver also leads the league in expected goals (6.84) through the playoffs.
No one outside of the club expected the Whitecaps to win when the Vancouver-L. A. series began, said defender Ranko Veselinovic.
“We’ve shown to ourselves that we can compete with them,” he said.
Now in his fifth season with the ‘Caps, Veselinovic said Friday’s game will be the biggest he’s played for the team.
“We haven’t had much success in the playoffs so, definitely, this is the one that can put our season on another level,” he said.
This is the second year in a row the Whitecaps have faced LAFC in the first round of the playoffs and last year, Vancouver was ousted in two straight games.
The team isn’t thinking about revenge as it prepares for Game 3, White said.
“More importantly than (beating LAFC), we want to get to the next round,” he said. “LAFC’s a very good team. We’ve come up against them a number of times in different competitions and they always seem to get the better of us. So it’d be huge for us to get the better of them this time.”
Earning a win last weekend required slowing L.A.’s transition game and limiting offensive opportunities for the team’s big stars, including Denis Bouanga.
Those factors will be important again on Friday, said Whitecaps head coach Vanni Sartini, who warned that his team could face a different style of game.
“I think the most important thing is going to be to match their intensity at the beginning of the game,” he said. “Because I think they’re going to come at us a million miles per hour.”
The ‘Caps will once again look to captain Ryan Gauld for some offensive firepower. The Scottish attacking midfielder leads MLS in playoff goals with five and has scored in all three of Vancouver’s post-season appearances this year.
Gearing up for another do-or-die matchup is exciting, Gauld said.
“Knowing it’s a winner-takes-all kind of game, being in that kind of environment is nice,” he said. “It’s when you see the best in players.”
LAFC faces the bulk of the pressure heading into the matchup, Sartini said, given the club’s appearances in the last two MLS Cup finals and its 2022 championship title.
“They’re supposed to win and we are not,” the coach said. “But it’s beautiful to have a little bit of pressure on us, too.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
Each PWHL team operated under its city name, with players wearing jerseys featuring the league’s logo in its inaugural season before names and logos were announced last month.
The Toronto Sceptres, Montreal Victoire, Ottawa Charge, Boston Fleet, Minnesota Frost and New York Sirens will start the PWHL’s second season on Nov. 30 with jerseys designed to reflect each team’s identity and to be sold to the public as replicas.
Led by PWHL vice-president of brand and marketing Kanan Bhatt-Shah, the league consulted Creative Agency Flower Shop to design the jerseys manufactured by Bauer, the PWHL said Thursday in a statement.
“Players and fans alike have been waiting for this moment and we couldn’t be happier with the six unique looks each team will don moving forward,” said PWHL senior vice president of business operations Amy Scheer.
“These jerseys mark the latest evolution in our league’s history, and we can’t wait to see them showcased both on the ice and in the stands.”
Training camps open Tuesday with teams allowed to carry 32 players.
Each team’s 23-player roster, plus three reserves, will be announced Nov. 27.
Each team will play 30 regular-season games, which is six more than the first season.
Minnesota won the first Walter Cup on May 29 by beating Boston three games to two in the championship series.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
