Toronto Blue Jays: Alek Manoah dazzling under the radar

Start a discussion with your non-Canadian friends about the best pitchers in the American League to start the 2022 season and it’s likely that Alek Manoah of the Toronto Blue Jays will not be one of the first names mentioned. While that may be the case right now, don’t expect it to stay that way when it comes to this Toronto pitcher who is absolutely dealing at the moment.

Manoah, the 24-year-old right-hander who grabbed little attention in the offseason as the Toronto Blue Jays added Kevin Gausman and Yusei Kikuchi to their rotation and locked up Jose Berríos to a contract extension, has been nothing but stellar so far in 2022. In fact, dating back to his final four starts of 2021, there have been few MLB pitchers who can match the numbers Manoah has been producing.

Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Alek Manoah is quietly having a statistically solid start to the 2022 campaign

After allowing just three hits and one walk while striking out seven in seven innings against the Boston Red Sox on Thursday afternoon, Manoah is now 8-0 in his last eight starts. During that stretch (dating back to September 13, 2021), Manoah has compiled a 1.57 ERA while opponents are hitting just .159 against him.

Manoah has gone at least 5.2 innings in each of those starts and has struck out seven or more in six of them.

That’s not bad for a pitcher who made his MLB debut at the end of last May. Of course, maybe we should have known Manoah had these kind of skills from that debut, when he allowed just two hits over six innings in an 88-pitch masterpiece at Yankee Stadium.

In an ever-competitive AL East, Manoah has already flashed his skills this year against the Yankees (one hit over six innings in New York) and the Red Sox (where he retired 15 of 16 batters during one stretch in Thursday’s 1-0 win). While all of the attention may be on the bigger names in the Blue Jays rotation, Manoah is mowing down the competition.

“I feel so good when he’s on the mound,” Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo told reporters after Thursday’s win. “That was his game to go seven innings and he did great.”

With the statistics Manoah is continuously putting up, Montoyo and the rest of Blue Jays Nation should absolutely feel very good every time it’s Manoah’s turn to pitch. He may be dazzling under the radar right now for Toronto, but don’t expect that to last much longer.