Alek Manoah’s latest comeback attempt derailed by terrifying injury

Alek Manoah is only in his fourth MLB season pitching for the Toronto Blue Jays, but it feels like he has been in the majors for much longer thanks to all of the ups and downs he has gone through so far.

In the 2022 season, his first full MLB season, Manoah was an AL Cy Young finalist. He wasn't just one of the best young pitchers in the AL, he was one of the best pitchers in all of baseball. He went from that to a pitcher who pitched so poorly in 2023 to the point where he was optioned to the minors more than once.

Manoah worked his way to Toronto's rotation after missing the beginning of this season due to injury and while two of his first four starts weren't great, he delivered a pair of outings in which he completed seven innings without allowing an earned run.

The right-hander had a chance to put together another good start on Wednesday facing the lowly Chicago White Sox and had gotten off to a good beginning, striking out three of the first six batters he faced before disaster struck. He threw a pitch and immediately looked as if he was in pain. He left the game afterward.

Alek Manoah suffers brutal injury at the worst time

Manoah hurt his right elbow throwing that pitch and was immediately removed from the game. He said that the elbow had been bothering him since his last start in Detroit and it felt "pinchy" whenever he'd follow through throwing a pitch.

“I just mentally told myself, ‘Stop thinking about it,’” Manoah said. “It’s just a little achy. It’s fine. It mostly bothered me when I extend, so I think that mentally, when I told myself not to think about it, I didn’t guard it and I got more extension than I was on the previous pitches.”

When Manoah stopped guarding against the "pinchy" feeling, that's when he clearly couldn't go anymore. Now, the Blue Jays right-hander will be sent out for an MRI and he'll hope nothing serious is going on.

Not only is this a brutally timed injury for Manoah who was seemingly figuring things out at the MLB level again, but it's a tough one for the Blue Jays to have to deal with, as they lack pitching depth. Both Bowden Francis and Yariel Rodriguez are working their way back from injuries and are on rehab assignments, but neither one of them is stretched out enough to take on a full starter's workload.

The only other starting pitcher on their 40-man roster in AAA is Paolo Espino, a guy who has a 5.06 career ERA.

Hopefully, this is nothing more than soreness for Manoah and he'll be back sooner than anyone expects. Not only is that what's best for Manoah, obviously, but it's best for a Blue Jays team that really needs him as they look to get back into the postseason race.