{"id":195178,"date":"2026-02-26T18:34:37","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T18:34:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/195178\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T18:34:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T18:34:37","slug":"ex-blue-jays-ace-cut-before-playoffs-says-he-was-very-big-piece-of-world-series-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/195178\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Blue Jays ace cut before playoffs says he was \u2018very big piece\u2019 of World Series run"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just like many baseball fans, Alek Manoah spent his evenings this past fall watching the Blue Jays embark on a run to the World Series, falling just short of upsetting the powerhouse Los Angeles Dodgers in a bid to bring the World Series back to Canada for the first time since 1993.<\/p>\n

But, unlike the other fans watching from their couches, Manoah feels that he played a \u201cvery big piece\u201d in that magical post-season adventure.<\/p>\n

During an interview with the Athletic<\/a>, Manoah said appeared to try to take a little bit of credit for the team\u2019s post-season success.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a very big piece of that process, getting to that World Series run,\u201d Manoah told the outlet\u2019s Sam Blum. \u201cI wasn\u2019t able to be there like I wanted to.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are all my friends,\u201d Manoah added. \u201cA lot of those guys I called my brothers. I rooted for them 100%. I wanted them to win it all.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Manoah did have some success early in his career with the Jays, he struggled mightily after his all-star 2022 season and hasn\u2019t pitched in the Majors since May 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After finishing third in AL Cy Young Award voting in 2022, Manoah had a disastrous 2023 season, which included a demotion to the minors.<\/p>\n

Why was Manoah released?<\/p>\n

After just five starts in 2024, Manoah ran into injury trouble and underwent Tommy John surgery in June and never pitched for the Jays again. He was released in September before the playoffs started after making several starts with the Jays\u2019 triple-A affiliate in Buffalo.<\/p>\n

At the time Jays general manager Ross Atkins didn\u2019t elaborate on why the team cut ties with the former ace, who started playoff game for the club in 2022.<\/p>\n

Manoah was claimed off waiver by the Atlanta Braves, but never made an appearance for the franchise before being non-tendered<\/a> and becoming a free agent.<\/p>\n

The former first-round draft pick later signed a one-year deal with the Los Angeles Angels<\/a> worth $1.95 million US, which reportedly is fully guaranteed.<\/p>\n

What does Manoah say about his career now?<\/p>\n

Manoah also told the Athletic that he is now trying to change the narrative around his career in this latest chance with the Angels.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like some narratives can be created on their own,\u201d he said, adding that \u201cat the end of the day, it\u2019s just baseball, right?<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been through a lot of tougher s*** in life besides baseball.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust keeping that perspective and understanding that, at the end of the day, struggling in baseball is a first-world problem. Trusting that every door that closes is closing for a reason. Every door that\u2019s opening is ready to blossom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manoah reportedly has been looking good during spring training so far, with his fastball velocity up from last year. He\u2019s confident that he can one day return to stardom.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look up and it\u2019s been two years since I\u2019ve been in a big-league game,\u201d Manoah said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t really hit me hard. I stay to the routine, I stay to the work every day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI trust the injuries, and I trust some of the down stuff is only going to make my platform bigger. It\u2019s going to make my voice a lot bigger for people that go through a lot of tough stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just like many baseball fans, Alek Manoah spent his evenings this past fall watching the Blue Jays embark…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[45532,163,165,164,5221,18537,2866,53,17225,4470],"class_list":{"0":"post-195178","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim","8":"tag-alek-manoah","9":"tag-anaheim","10":"tag-anaheim-headlines","11":"tag-anaheim-news","12":"tag-atlanta-braves","13":"tag-jays","14":"tag-los-angeles-angels","15":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","16":"tag-the-jays","17":"tag-world-series"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}