What happened to Alek Manoah? Former Cy Young winner's Blue Jays Florida Complex league stint gets worse

Alek Manoah was sent down to the Florida Complex League by the Toronto Blue Jays recently. After being a finalist for AL Cy Young in 2022, Manoah was awful this year and had to be sent all the way down in hopes that he could recapture the magic. Thus far, he hasn't been able to.

In his first start since being demoted, his poor form followed him all the way down. In fact, Manoah's first start in the rookie league was worse than his big-league performance.

Alek Manoah in his first rookie ball start today against the Florida Complex League Yankees:

2.2 IP, 11 ER, 10 H, 2 HR, 3 K, 2 BB https://t.co/ZV3dBVd2n9

Across 2.2 innings, the former Blue Jays ace gave up an astounding 11 runs. In the Florida Complex League, that's extremely disheartening. He allowed 10 hits and walked two batters while striking out three. Two batters left the yard.

Alek Manoah's struggles continue in Florida Complex League

It is important to note that there's a context to this kind of statline. Naturally, Alek Manoah is trying to fix things and the Blue Jays aren't worried about him giving up runs this low in the minors.

Had this been a major league start, he never would have stayed in long enough to surrender such output to the Yankees' Complex League team. Nevertheless, this is far from encouraging in any way.

Alek Manoah really has a 37.13 ERA in the Florida Complex League😳⚾️

#NextLevel https://t.co/6Qc1hYOEpZ

Manoah had seen his big-league ERA soar to well over 6.00 before the Blue Jays called it and sent him all the way down. This start doesn't indicate that he'll be back to the majors any time soon.