The Alek Manoah Reclamation Project Is off to a Good Start

Alek Manoah was emerging as one of the best young pitchers in baseball when I first talked to him for FanGraphs in April 2022. Pitching for the Toronto Blue Jays at the time, he boasted a record of 12-2 and 3.05 ERA across 23 starts dating back to his major league debut the previous May. And he was only getting better. By season’s end, the burly right-hander not only was 25-9 with a 2.60 ERA, but he also had allowed just 221 hits over 308 1/3 innings across 51 career starts. A star in the making at age 24, he finished third in that year’s American League Cy Young Award voting.

As Blue Jays fans know all too well, things proceeded to go south. The Homestead, Florida native stumbled through a tumultuous 2023 in which his command and velocity dipped, and things got even worse the following year. Burdened by shoulder and elbow woes, Manoah ended up having surgery to repair his ulnar collateral ligament in June 2024. Recovery wasn’t exactly smooth. He tossed just 38 1/3 innings last season, none of them in the majors.

His once-prosperous Toronto tenure also came to an end, as did a brief stint with another organization. Claimed off waivers by the Atlanta Braves in late September, Manoah subsequently signed a free-agent deal with the Los Angeles Angels in December. He is now in the early stages of what might be deemed the Alek Manoah Reclamation Project.

The initial results have been positive. This past Sunday, Manoah took the mound against the Arizona Diamondbacks and tossed two scoreless innings, throwing 25 of his 36 pitches for strikes and allowing just a pair of walks. Moreover, his four-seam fastball was clocked at 93-94 mph. Last season, it was most often in the 89-92 range, meaningful ticks below the 93.9 mph he’d averaged in his 2022 All-Star campaign.

I asked the 6-foot-6 hurler about his velocity rebound on Monday at Angels camp.

“I think it was my getting a full offseason after the TJ rehab, and being able to work on some little mechanical adjustments,” Manoah said. “Continue to take that out there over and over again.”

He didn’t go into detail about his adjustments, but he did provide a good overview of the objective. He also agreed when I stated that getting one’s mechanics fully back in sync while returning from Tommy John isn’t always easy.

“That’s a big part of it,” Manoah said. “For one, you play so much catch throughout your rehab, on flat ground, and much of it is light catch. Some inconsistencies can grow from that.

“It was getting into this past offseason, resetting, taking a look at where we were at [and] where we want to be,” he added. “And then just cutting some fat off the steak, basically. Simplifying it a bit. Staying on top of the ball. Getting into a good offseason long-toss program. Power program. Getting the body feeling really good again.”

The slider was the 285-pound righty’s top weapon when he was dominating big league hitters circa 2022, so it came as little surprise when he brought it up as a pitch-specific focus.

“The biggest thing I’ve worked on is the consistency of the slider,” he told me. “After rehab, that can be the one pitch where it’s toughest to have that flip-it-in-there-for-a-strike feel, or to be able to flip it in there for a two-strike. For me, it’s about having multiple variations of my slider, which I’ve always been use to having. Getting that consistency with the variation has been [a focus]. Working on that in the offseason, working on that in live BPs, in bullpens, everything, here in spring training.”

His changeup is another story. Monoah feels the pitch has actually benefitted from the rehab process, in part because he threw a lot of them during long toss. He thinks, or at least hopes, that it will be better than in recent seasons. As for the pitch itself, that hasn’t changed. Elbow health is the reason why.

“Same grip, same everything,” he said. “I’m not trying to scare the elbow off again. Anything new… [Dr. Keith] Meister was the one who did my [surgery], and he sees a lot of… I mean, Meister can go in your elbow and tell if you’re a changeup guy or a slider guy. That’s actually kind of crazy. He talks about how the changeup used to be a change-of-speed pitch, and now it’s a movement pitch. Throwing it to get movement can change some stuff in your elbow, so I’m not trying to make it do more. For me, it’s just changing the speeds, throwing it out front, and continuing to get more confident with it.”

The degree to which Angels fans should be confident about Manoah’s chances of reemerging as a quality big league starter — or perhaps even a rank-and-file big league starter — is open for debate. One thing is certain: If the Alek Manoah Reclamation Project bears fruit, a new family member will be cheering him on.

“I’ve got a baby at home — 10 months today — and we’re happy and excited to have him in the stands this year for the first time,” Manoah said. “We’re in a good place. Maybe some day you’ll be able to interview him.”