Alek Manoah, outspoken rival of Yankees ace Gerrit Cole, has been struggling badly in 2023, pitching to a miserable 6.36 ERA this season.
Manoah’s struggles had become so glaring that the Blue Jays announced Tuesday that their former ace had been optioned to the rookie-level Florida Complex League to figure things out. The move came shortly after the 2022 AL Cy Young finalist was tagged for six runs in just 0.1 innings against the Astros.
Given Manoah’s pervious feuds with Cole and the Yanks, including challenging the Yankee ace to meet him on the mound after Cole’s enraged reaction to Manoah hitting Aaron Judge with a pitch last season, Yankee fans jumped all over Manoah, roasting the pitcher for falling so drastically from last year’s production level after calling Cole the “worst cheater” in baseball this past offseason.
It didn’t take long for Yankee fans to flood social media and troll Manoah, who also held up the start to his and Cole’s hyped matchup earlier this season by emerging from the bullpen late in a game where both he and Cole pitched well. But that was an outlier for Manoah, who is being sent all the way back down to rookie ball to try and rediscover his old form.
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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