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| see you . . . soon? we hope? |
Before things got as bad as they were going to Monday night, Buck Martinez said that his advice to the struggling and embattled Alek Manoah, were he asked it, would simply be to go out there and be as aggressive as possible: rather than trying any measure of finesse, just fire it in there, because whatever happens, it can't be as bad as it has been, right? And yet it somehow was worse: six runs on seven hits and a walk in just a third of an inning (Alex Bregman hit a fly ball to Kevin Kiermaier for Manoah's lone out). It has been clear for a while now that Manoah just doesn't have it right now, and not just in the sense that he is no longer the top-three Cy Young Award finalist from a year ago, but to such an extent that he has probably been the worst pitcher in either league this season (there are different ways to measure this, but a strong, sad case can be made). The announcement Tuesday morning that Manoah was being reassigned not to Triple-A Buffalo, but to the player development complex in Dunedin, seemed at once a little shocking yet totally the right move, as it can't just be about getting more reps of the same thing, but something close to a complete rebuild. The best-case scenario is of course Roy Halliday—who came up, was amazing, then awful, went back down, changed his arm angle, and came back as Roy Halliday—but there are an awful lot more players who have had it, then lost it, and never got it back than there are Roy Hallidays. Anything we could get out of Manoah at this point, whether that be passable fifth starter, or a multi-inning guy out of the bullpen, would be a creditable salvage operation; front-of-the-rotation starter seems pretty much out of the question. We can hope though, right? But right now it is a sad affair any way you look at it. I feel for the big guy.
KS
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