Blue Jays castoff Alek Manoah officially sealed his Angels fate in new low moment

Alek Manoah's tenure with the LA Angels may be short lived. The 28-year-old former first round pick (2019 draft, No. 11 overall) of the Toronto Blue Jays continues to have a dreadful spring showing with the AL West club, and he may have hit a new low earlier this week in their Cactus League game against the Chicago Cubs.

Alek Manoah's spring goes from bad to worse as he struggles to hold onto a rotation spot

Manoah's day actually got off to a good start. After giving up a leadoff double to Michael Busch, he retired the next two batters, then struck out Dansby Swanson to end the inning. But the wheels fell off in the second. Michael Conforto doubled on a 1-2 sinker, ripping the ball 109.7 mph. A few pitches later, Manoah tried to sneak a 78.3 mph slider past Carson Kelly, but the Cubs catcher turned on the middle-outside pitch and launched it over the wall in center field.

Three pitches later, Moisés Ballesteros did the same thing, this time taking an a 91.1 mph four-seam fastball 441 feet the other way to centre field. Manoah got the next batter, Dylan Carlson, to strike out, but then he walked three of the next four hitters and was relieved by Camden Minacci.

Manoah was back in for the top of the third (as per Spring Training rules which allows pulled pitches to go back into the game) and looked to have straightened things out. Conforto grounded out, Kelly struck out, but Ballesteros hit another home run. It was also on a four-seam fastball, that he again hit over the fence in center. Manoah retired the next batter and then had a three up, three down fourth inning with his final line reading; four innings pitched, eight hits allowed, four walks, seven earned runs, five strikeouts and three home runs allowed.

At this point, there isn't a lot to point to that would warrant any excitement for Angles fans about putting Manoah in the rotation. He signed a one-year $1.95 million deal this offseason and, on paper, looked like he was going to be the number five starter coming out of the gates. But thanks to his struggles throughout spring, in which he has walked 14 hitters in 15 innings, Manoah may be falling even further down the depth chart.

The Angels have some of their top prospects waiting for an opportunity such as Ryan Johnson (No. 7 prospect) and George Klassen (No. 3 prospect). It feels like it could come down to Manoah's next spring outing as to whether he makes the team or not. The velocity seems fine, and the strikeout numbers aren't bad, (13 Ks in 15.1 innings pitched), but there's way too many walks, and way too much hard contact given up when he does find the zone.

For any Blue Jays fans thinking the team may have made a mistake in waiving Monah last year to make room on the 40-man roster for Anthony Santander, those concerns should be easing as it looks like the Blue Jays may have made the right decision in the long run.