The Los Angeles Angels are looking hard for a fifth starter, but right now Alek Manoah looks like the odd man out.
The Los Angeles Angels have some holes in the back half of their rotation, and they signed pitcher Alek Manoah with the hope he might fill one of them. Manoah was once a rising star, but injuries and control issues made him available to the Angels, who specialized in signing pitchers like Manoah this offseason.
Manoah had some promising moments in his first couple of starts, but now he seems to be going backwards. He’s had two subpar outings in a row, according to Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com, and he’s allowed nine runs in just six innings against the Athletics and the Chicago White Sox.
Given that Manoah still has minor-league options left, that kind of performance could easily get him a ticket to the minors. The Angels open in Houston on March 26, and he could start the season in Salt Lake if he can’t turn it around. His quotes after his last game sounded like someone who knew he was fighting an uphill battle.
“I compete every day for everything,” Manoah said. “So whatever [GM] Perry [Minasian] has in mind for me, whatever the coaching staff has in mind for me, my job is to compete every time I take the rubber, to go out there and throw the [heck] out of the ball. So I’m going to keep doing that.”
Competing is great, of course, but Manoah is trying to win against some surprisingly tough competition. Right-hander Jack Kochanowicz didn’t pitch well last year, but he has a 2.08 ERA in 8-2/3 innings, and prospect George Klassen has an ERA of 2.25 with nine strikeouts in eight innings so far, so the battle for the fifth starter slot has been more challenging than expected.
But new manager Kurt Suzuki caught in the big leagues for 16 years, so he knows the risk of making decisions too early in spring training.
“He's still definitely in the mix,” manager Kurt Suzuki said of Manoah. “We haven't decided on anything. There's a lot of guys still going, still pitching.”
Manoah got hit hard against the White Sox, and his control wasn’t great, either. He needed 81 pitches to record just 12 outs, so the good news is that he definitely got his work in.
His velocity is also down to 91.6 mph, which may also be part of the problem. It’s entirely possible that Manoah may take longer to turn things around, or he could be one of those signings who ends up being a flyer that simply doesn’t work out. He’s also walked 10 hitters in just 11-1/3 innings, which isn’t promising, either.
“Right now, it's kind of a little bit of a process and result kind of thing,” said Manoah, who has worked to tweak his mechanics. “We know that if we continue to hammer out the process, the end result will be great, but at the same time, you have to go out there and compete.”