Marcus Stroman: "I'm rolling with Alek Manoah always. He's a dawg"
Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Alek Manoah rattled some cages Monday when he called New York Yankees staff ace Gerrit Cole the "worst cheater" in the history of Major League Baseball. However, he has at least one supporter in former Blue Jays hurler Marcus Stroman.
"I’m rolling with @Alek_Manoah6 always. He’s a dawg. Interview with @sergeibaka was amazing. I know them fickle Yankee fans lost sleep last night. Lmao," Stroman, currently a Chicago Cubs starter, tweeted Tuesday.
I’m rolling with @Alek_Manoah6 always. He’s a dawg. Interview with @sergeibaka was amazing. I know them fickle Yankee fans lost sleep last night. Lmao 😂
I'm rolling with @Alek_Manoah6 always. He's a dawg. Interview with @sergeibaka was amazing. I know them fickle Yankee fans lost sleep last night. Lmao - @STRO
Stroman tweeted his support for Alek Manoah a day after the young Blue Jays hurler called out Cole on former Toronto Raptors player Serge Ibaka's How Hungry Are You? podcast on the Canadian Sportsnet network.
After being asked who the biggest cheater in MLB is, Alek Manoah said: "Gerrit Cole. He used a lot of sticky stuff to make his pitches better, and he kinda got called out on it."
Alek Manoah and Gerrit Cole have history
Alek Manoah and Cole, division rivals in the American League East, are known not to be particularly fond of one another. Tempers flared between the two in a game last August after Manoah hit Yankees star outfielder Aaron Judge with a pitch.
The two pitchers engaged in a few rounds of verbal jawing between the dugouts. Although cooler heads eventually prevailed, Manoah and Cole never made peace.
Statistically, Alek Manoah had a far better season than Cole in 2022. The 25-year-old Blue Jays ace had a breakout season in his second major league campaign, going 16-7 with a 2.24 ERA and 180 strikeouts in 196 2/3 innings. Cole, in the midst of a nine-year, $324 million contract that runs through 2028, went 13-8 with a 3.50 ERA, though he did lead the majors with 257 strikeouts.
Cole became poster boy for sticky substances in '21
In 2021, Cole's reputation for using foreign substances on the ball to enhance his pitching prowess was a harsh spotlight shown upon him by MLB.
The league began cracking down on pitchers using substances on the ball and began checking gloves after each hurler left the mound. The criticism of Cole grew, long thought to be one of the main league infractors. For his part, Cole never denied using foreign substances.
When asked in a June 7, 2021, press conference as to whether he used Spider Tack — a sticky paste known to increase the spin on pitched balls — Cole fumbled for an answer.
here's gerrit cole's response when asked point blank if he has ever used spider tack, one of the sticky substances baseball is looking to crack down on https://t.co/rKFOksIDoW
Here's gerrit cole's response when asked point blank if he has ever used spider tack, one of the sticky substances baseball is looking to crack down on -- @mroberson22
"I don’t know quite how to answer that, to be honest," Cole said. "I mean, there are customs and practices that have been passed down from older players to younger players from the last generation of players to this generation of players. I think there are some things that are certainly out of bounds in that regard, and I’ve stood pretty firm in terms of that, in terms of the communication between our peers and whatnot."