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Blue Jays Alek Manoah’s recent outing was a step forward but work still remains
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Photo credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images
Nicholas Paleolog
Aug 20, 2025, 17:30 EDTUpdated: Aug 20, 2025, 17:05 EDT
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Alek Manoah’s latest minor league outing was one of those starts where the box score doesn’t quite tell the whole story for the former Cy Young finalist. 
On paper, he gave up just one run over 4 2/3 innings, striking out four while allowing only three hits and two walks. A decent line and a major improvement from his last triple-A outing.
However, a closer look at his stuff reveals a pitcher who is still very much in the process of rebuilding, with questions about how he would succeed against major league lineups.

Early hard contact

From the first inning, hitters were finding the barrel. The first two outs that Manoah recorded were loud and hard-hit baseballs to the outfield, and the third batter he faced, Yankees prospect Spencer Jones, hammered a 111 mph home run off a fastball.
Manoah leaned heavily on his sinker and four-seamer in the frame, mixing in just one slider. Velocity was a bit below what fans were used to seeing, with his fastball sitting at 91 mph, a step below the 94 mph he reached in his 2022 All-Star campaign.

Command issues in the second inning

The second inning was less about hard contact and more about command. Manoah walked the leadoff hitter, left a slider in the middle for a single, and gave up another base hit on a heater. His frustration boiled over after issuing a walk to load the bases, yelling an expletive as the opposing hitter walked to first. He ultimately escaped with a flyout, but the sequence showed how thin his margin for error is.

Perhaps most concerning was his changeup, which came in at 89–90 mph. Considering his fastball was around the 91 mph mark, there was little to no variation between the two pitches. Without that separation in velocity, hitters could sit comfortably, and with shaky command, the off-speed wasn’t doing much to disrupt timing.

Signs of progress

To Manoah’s credit, the outing improved as it went along.
In the third inning, he notched his first strikeout of the night, and by the fourth, Manoah was mixing more sliders, generating weak contact. Something to note is that the slider was sitting at 76–77 mph, well below the 81 mph average it carried a few years ago.
In the fifth, he struck out back-to-back hitters before being lifted at 75 pitches (44 for strikes). It was his strongest inning on the day, and was a great way to finish his outing, showing signs that there is still a stud pitcher in there waiting to reemerge. 

What’s next?

The box score looks pretty good for Manoah, but it’s clear that he is still a step away from being MLB-ready.
His fastball velocity has dipped, his slider is several ticks softer than it used to be, and his changeup lacks the separation needed to keep big league bats off balance. The command wavered throughout, leading to walks and too many deep counts.
That said, he did adjust as the outing went on, and when he did eventually find his command, he was inducing a lot of weak contact and whiffs. There is still something here with Manoah, and underneath all of the rust, there is a guy who could still prove effective in the show. However, unless the velocity ticks up and his secondary pitches sharpen, Manoah’s stuff doesn’t look ready yet. The Jays may choose to keep Manoah down in Buffalo for a while longer to allow him time to further refine his craft, with their sights set on 2026 as a potential timeline for an MLB return. 

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