Alek Manoah to make season debut for Blue Jays on Sunday against Nationals

We now know who’s starting on Sunday for the Blue Jays.

According to Keegan Matheson of MLB.com, the Blue Jays will activate Alek Manoah from the 15-day Injured List ahead of their series finale against the Washington Nationals on Sunday. The big righty will make his season debut in place of Yariel Rodriguez, who was placed on the IL earlier this week with a back injury.

It’ll be Manoah’s first start in the Major Leagues since August 10, 2023, when he allowed four earned runs over four innings of work in a loss to the Cleveland Guardians. Manoah was Toronto’s Opening Day starter in 2023 but struggled to a 5.87 ERA over 19 starts and was optioned to the minors on two separate occasions.

The Blue Jays sent Manoah to the Florida Complex League in June after he put up a 6.36 ERA over his first 13 starts. He came back up a month later and posted a 4.91 ERA over six starts before getting optioned again, this time to Triple-A. Manoah never pitched for the Buffalo Bisons in 2023 and there’s still uncertainty around whether the reason was because of an injury or an issue with the team over service time.

Despite all of that, Manoah came into Spring Training this year expected to be the fifth pitcher in Toronto’s starting rotation behind Kevin Gausman, Jose Berrios, Chris Bassitt, and Yusei Kikuchi. He arrived at camp in excellent shape but suffered a shoulder injury following his first Grapefruit League start and wound up having to start the season on the Injured List.

Over four rehab outings with the Bisons, Manoah posted a 6.50 ERA. He pitched 18 innings, struck out 26 batters, walked seven, and didn’t hit a batter. While the command and strikeout numbers are very encouraging, Manoah surrendered four home runs over his four outings with the Bisons. Most recently, he allowed just one earned run over six innings against the Indianapolis Indians, the Triple-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

While Manoah was once Toronto’s top starting pitcher, the hope for the Blue Jays now is that he be an effective innings-eater at the back of their rotation. Yariel Rodriguez showed a lot of promise but didn’t go deeper than four innings in any of his starts because he’s on a pitch limit this season. If Manoah can effectively fill the fifth starter role, Rodriguez can be used as a multi-inning swingman when he returns from injury, which would make Toronto’s bullpen much deeper.

If Manoah can’t pitch effectively at the big-league level, the Blue Jays might have to go out and look for another depth arm. With Rodriguez and Bowden Francis both on the shelf, Toronto’s next option on the 40-man roster for a starting pitcher is journeyman Paolo Espino, who has a 6.06 ERA in four starts for the Bisons this season.