Alek Manoah made his first rehab start and it went about as well as Angels fans expected

The Los Angeles Angels have some problems with their starting rotation. Yusei Kikuchi just went on the IL with a shoulder issue and outside of José Soriano, there isn’t a ton of confidence in the rest of the bunch. Even a guy trying to come back from injury, Alek Manoah, is struggling in his rehab starts.

Manoah recently started a game for LA’s Single-A affiliate and he threw 87 pitches while allowing five earned runs including seven hits and two walks. He was removed in the fifth inning. That’s about as well as Angels fans thought he’d do.

Manoah has yet to throw a pitch in the big leagues for the Halos. Los Angeles signed him in the offseason to a one-year major league deal but he began the year on the IL due to a fingernail issue. In spring training with the Angels, he had a 9.39 ERA in five starts. Needless to say, expectations were very low for him coming into the season and they are likely not going to get much higher anytime soon.

Angels cannot be expecting much from Alek Manoah despite past success

While Manoah was a former All-Star with the Toronto Blue Jays, that was back in 2022. He’s not that same guy anymore as poor performance and injuries have really hampered him the last few seasons.

In 2022, Manoah had a remarkable 2.24 ERA in 31 starts for Toronto. The following year he had a 5.87 ERA in 19 starts and was demoted to the minors. Manoah reacted poorly to being demoted and told Toronto that he would not pitch the rest of that season.

It seemed pretty clear after that Manoah would not be a Blue Jay much longer. He pitched a bit in 2024 and was a bit better with a 3.70 ERA in five big league starts but an injury derailed his season as he had to undergo elbow surgery. The Blue Jays finally let him go last September.

On paper, Manoah seemed like an interesting reclamation project for the Angels given his past success. But at this point it seems abundantly clear that he’s not going to be the guy he was back in 2022. He’s just 28 years old so there’s a chance he could figure it out and be a decent big league pitcher, but don’t expect any more All-Star appearances.

The Angels just learned the hard way that betting on a former Blue Jays All-Star pitcher can backfire in pretty spectacular fashion. Los Angeles used Jordan Romano, who was an All-Star for Toronto in 2022 and 2023, as their closer to begin the 2026 season and after a nice start he completely went off the rails and had a 10.13 ERA on the year when he was let go.

Manoah will probably pitch at some point this season for the Angels, but fans shouldn't be expecting much. As long as the Angels keep rolling the dice on guys who were good three years ago, they’re probably going to keep on getting burned. 

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