Blue Jays: Alek Manoah has earned the ace role for the playoffs

The Blue Jays have been very fortunate with the lightning quick development of sophomore starter Alek Manoah, who should be the team’s Game 1 starter in the playoffs.

John Schneider hasn’t really commented much about how the Blue Jays are going to line up their rotation in the playoffs, and to be fair, it’s a little early for that anyway. That said, I have nothing to do with the team other than writing about them here, so I have no problem speculating about how the Jays will utilize their rotation in the opening round. In my mind, there’s no other choice than to give Alek Manoah the ball in Game 1, regardless of who they’re playing.

The big right-hander has been absolutely dominant in his second second in the big leagues, already cementing himself as one of the game’s very best young starters. Heading into tonight’s start against the Red Sox he had posted a 15-7 record with a 2.31 ERA and a 1.002 WHIP over 30 starts, covering 190.2 innings. It was more of the same dominance against the Red Sox on Friday with six more scoreless innings, and hopefully that will be the last we see of the 24 year old until the playoffs begin next week. In theory his rotation spot could come up one more time, but I can’t imagine the Jays will waste their best starter for what should be a meaningless game by then.

I could understand the argument for handing the ball to Kevin Gausman for Game 1 of the playoffs, who has had a really solid season of his own in his first as a Blue Jay. The veteran has playoff experience on his resume, as he has a 3.94 ERA in the playoffs over the course of his career. Interestingly enough that spans appearances as far back as 2014 with the Orioles, up until last year with the Giants. He hasn’t been particularly dominant by any means, but he has been in that atmosphere before, which can be an important factor.

Having said that, Manoah doesn’t seem to be the type of young player that is phased by the big moment, and instead thrives in those situations. He rose to the occasion in his MLB debut against the Yankees, and he’s pretty much been doing the same ever since. Some players are just built for big game scenarios, and Manoah is undoubtedly cut from that kind of cloth.

On top of not being afraid of the big moment, Manoah has pitched well against the two teams that the Blue Jays are most likely to face in the first round, which are the Mariners and the Rays. Manoah only made one start against Seattle this year, but it was a good one as he went 7.1 innings and allowed just two earned runs on three hits and four walks. As for the Rays, he made three starts against the division rival and posted a 1.37 ERA and a 0.915 WHIP over a trio of strong performances.

Despite the fact that Manoah has had the biggest workload of his career, I have nothing but faith that he still has gas left in the tank. When you add a playoff atmosphere and the adrenaline that comes with it, I’m very confident that the Florida native will be up for the task.

Without taking anything away from Gausman or Ross Stripling, there shouldn’t be any debate left about who the ace of this staff is. With that in mind, the Blue Jays would be fools not to start him in Game 1, and to use him for as many playoff starts as they can.