Alek Manoah didn’t take too long to ponder who he thought was the worst cheater in baseball history.
Asked by Serge Ibaka on Sportsnet’s ‘How Hungry Are You?” special, the Blue Jays ace quickly said it was the Yankees ace who should wear that label.
“In baseball history? Cheater? Gerrit Cole,” Manoah said.
Ibaka asked what Cole did, and Manoah discussed the Spider Tack craze of last season, when MLB cracked down on the use of foreign substances, a movement that Cole became the face of after his infamously long pause when asked by a reporter if he had ever used Spider Tack before.
“He cheated,” Manoah said. “He used a lot of sticky stuff to make his pitches better. He kind of got called out on it.”
Manoah and Cole have a past already, stemming from an August game between the Blue Jays and Yankees last season when Manoah plunked Aaron Judge in the arm, leading to Cole emerging from the Yankee dugout and sharing some words with Manoah.
Asked about the exchange after the game, Manoah said, “I’m not trying to do that and I think [Judge] understood that. I think if Gerrit wants to do something, he can walk past the Audi sign next time.”
Safe to say Manoah’s recent comments won’t smooth things over between the two pitchers.
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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