Alek Manoah Dominates in Triple-A Debut with Buffalo Bisons

The former Mountaineer was nearly perfect in his first start with Buffalo.

Last year, the pandemic forced the minor leagues to be shut down for the entire season while MLB played a condensed 60-game season. Now, Minor League Baseball is finally back as is former West Virginia pitcher, Alek Manoah. 

Two years ago, the Toronto Blue Jays drafted Manoah with the 11th overall pick in the 2019 MLB First-Year Player Draft and signed him to a $4.5 million deal. 

In 2019, Manoah appeared and started in six games for the Vancouver Canadiens, the Class A short season affiliate of the Blue Jays. In 17 innings of work, Manoah allowed five runs and 13 hits but struck out 27 batters while holding opponents to a .217 batting average.

This year, Manoah made the jump from single-A to triple-A and made his debut with the Buffalo Bisons on Thursday night. As always, Manoah was dominant and struck out 12 batters and allowed just two hits in six innings of work. His fastball was as live as it usually is but it was his breaking balls that really showed up in a big way. 

During his time at WVU, he focused on blowing fastball after fastball past hitters and occasionally flipping in a slider or change up. For Manoah to have success in the minors and climb up the ladder to the major leagues, he knew his secondary pitches had to become more consistent and he proved that in a 10-1 win on Thursday vs Worcester.

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