Ken Rosenthal of “The Athletic” reports that the Toronto Blue Jays are willing to trade starting pitcher Alek Manoah.
Speaking under oath to avoid being accused of tampering, several rival executives claim the Blue Jays are amenable to trading right-hander Alek Manoah. It remains to be seen how open.
We don’t know if they are actively shopping Manoah or merely listening to offers, but this is an intriguing development considering that we recently learned that Manoah had the “leg up” on earning Toronto’s fifth starting berth.
Manoah, who started Game 1 of the playoffs for Toronto in 2022, went just 3-9 in a disastrous 2023 season for the Jays. He made 19 appearances and pitched to an ERA of 5.87.
He was sent to the organization’s minor league complex at one point and then was sent to Triple-A at the end of the season, but never appeared in games there.
Still just 25 years old, Manoah has a chance to re-write the story of his career and get back to the productive pitcher he was in 2022. Now we have to see which organization that will be a part of.
There’s a few different ways to look at all this:
1) The Blue Jays don’t think Manoah will ever return to his prior form and could ship him off to just get “something” for him.
2) The Blue Jays would be giving up very early on a player who has previously been very good and is under contract through 2027.
3) The Blue Jays should hold onto Manoah in order to at least restore his value on the trade market. They’d be selling awfully low on him right now.
