Nearly a month after he was sent down to the minor leagues amid an abysmal start to the season, Blue Jays pitcher Alek Manoah is finally on his way back to The Show.
Manoah will rejoin the big-league roster for Friday’s game against the Tigers, manager John Schneider told reporters on Tuesday. His promotion comes after an up-and-down minor league assignment that included an 11-run outing, though he later struck out 10 batters across five innings at Double A.
“He just wants to win, and talking to him this whole time, he just wants to be a part of it and was frustrated that he wasn’t giving our team a chance to win every time,” Schneider said, per ESPN. “But he wants to be here in the ups and the downs.”
Manoah, 25, struggled mightily to start the season, posting a 1–7 record with a 6.36 ERA through his first 13 starts in the majors. He failed to get out of the first inning during his June 5 outing against the Astros, allowing six runs on a walk and seven hits in nine batters faced. That ended up being his last major league appearance before his demotion.
The right-hander was an All-Star and a Cy Young Award finalist in 2022, going 16–7 with a 2.24 ERA in 31 starts.
