The Los Angeles Angels thought they had something based on Alek Manoah's initial starts, but now he's struggling again.
For a couple of starts, it looked like the Los Angeles Angels might have found something with Alek Manoah. The right-hander looked slimmed-down and confident, and his velocity was back, too.
But this spring training story has taken a familiar turn, unfortunately. Manoah had another rough outing that’s now part of a string of them, as the Chicago Cubs knocked him around for seven runs on eight hits in four-plus innings, and Manoah also walked four batters.
“Just a grind for the most part,” Manoah said to Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com after the game. “Made some pitches there when I needed to, but obviously the big swings kind of got me.”
Even worse, his velocity was down. Bollinger had Manoah at 89.5 mph on his sinker, which clocked in at over 93 back in 2024, which was the pitcher’s last season in the majors. His changeup was effective, though, producing 10 swings and misses, so there are still parts and pieces of Manoah’s repertoire to work with going forward.
The question now is starting to be where going forward will happen. Left-hander Mitch Farris was scheduled to face the Cubs on the road in Mesa, but manager Kurt Suzuki decided to give Manoah a shot against a lineup full of regulars with a genuine crowd of sorts in the stands, even if it is spring training.
“We wanted to see him pitch under the lights,” manager Kurt Suzuki said. “We wanted to see him face a good lineup with that adrenaline pumping and a packed crowd.”
His struggles against the Cubs included a pair of back-to-back home runs, and pitching coach Mike Maddux and the trainer paid a visit in with Suzuki in the fifth inning due to a fingernail issue, but Manoah stayed in the game.
“The last couple have kind of just been a grind,” Manoah said. “But at the end of the day, when you go into a season, you don't take that ERA with you. Your Spring Training numbers don't matter. If I had a zero ERA right now, would they be giving me the Cy Young? No, right?”
This kind of whistling-in-the-dark quote probably isn’t what the Angels were hoping to hear from Manoah. He came to camp on a one-year, $1.95 million deal, but his struggles have allowed Jack Kochanowicz and George Klassen to stay in the picture as the possible fifth stater, while Grayson Rodriguez is starting to round into form as the fourth man in the rotation.
It’s starting to look like Manoah will end up back in the minors, unless he can turn around his latest downward spiral in his final starts of spring training.