Blue Jays ace Alek Manoah isn't the only one struggling mightily in MLB this season

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Much news has been made recently about Toronto Blue Jays’ starter and ace Alek Manoah with regards to his struggles this year, along with his subsequent demotion to the minors on Tuesday to work on his mechanics in the Florida Complex League. After having a Cy Young-caliber type season in 2022, very few people were expecting such a great regression in performance by Manoah in 2023. Not only was he battling his control and command all season, but it was recently revealed he had been battling with his focus and mentality as well.

In doing so, Manoah has set career lows in ERA, ERA+, OBA, WHIP, FIP, and strikeout-to-walk ratio so far this season, and had fallen mightily from his dominant self in the season prior. However, if we take a closer look at some of the other notable front-end starters around the league, one would be surprised to find that it actually hasn’t been just Manoah that has been struggling big time. In fact, there have been quite a few star-caliber pitchers that have joined the club of below-par pitching performances for the 2023 season.

Sandy Alcántara, Miami Marlins

The one that stands out right away is reigning NL Cy Young winner Sandy Alcántara of the Miami Marlins. Alcántara has posted one of the worst starts to a season for a pitcher after being crowned a Cy Young winner the previous year. For the season, he owns a record of 2-5 with a 5.07 ERA, 1.22 WHIP, ERA+ of 86, giving up 43 earned runs, six home runs, 25 walks and 67 strikeouts over 76.1 innings pitched. This is a far cry from the 2.28 ERA and ERA+ of 176 that he posted last year on his way to capturing his first ever Cy Young award. But similar to the Jays, the rest of the Marlins’ pitching staff has picked him up, so the team overall still has a winning record despite his struggles.

Dylan Cease, Chicago White Sox

Another pitcher that jumps out right away is one that was actually an AL Cy Young finalist along with Manoah just this past year. That pitcher is Chicago White Sox ace, Dylan Cease. For 2023, Cease has posted a 3-3 record, to go along with a 4.63 ERA, 1.37 WHIP, giving up 35 earned runs including eight home runs, 32 walks and 74 strikeouts over 68 innings. If it wasn’t for a solid outing in his most recent start, his numbers would have been even uglier. Cease was counted on by his team to lead the charge this year, as he was appointed the Opening Day starter at the beginning of the year, similar to what the Jays did with Manoah. However, his miserable start to the season has contributed to his team’s struggles, as overall they are still sub .500 team going into the third month of the season.

Lance Lynn, Chicago White Sox

Even worse for the White Sox was that their second front-end, ace-type starter Lance Lynn was undergoing the same struggles at the same time for the ballclub. A former AL Cy Young finalist in 2021 with a career ERA of 3.64 and WHIP of 1.27, Lynn has gotten off to his worst start to the season in his career. His horrid numbers include an eye-popping 6.55 ERA, along with an ERA + of 67 and WHIP of 1.52, giving up 49 earned runs (including 15 home runs already), 26 walks and 76 strikeouts in 67.1 innings pitched. It’s no wonder that the White Sox have been underperforming this year, when two of the best starters are just treading water just to survive so far this season.

Nestor Cortes, New York Yankees

This time, the scuffling front-end starter is one found in the same division as the Jays, Nestor Cortes of the New York Yankees. Cortes was just coming off a stellar season in 2022 where he was in contention for the AL Cy Young award until he tailed off near the end of the season. Nevertheless, he was still an All-Star and one of the Yankees best starters last year, even more so than suppose-to-be ace Gerrit Cole. However, Cortes has been off to a slow start for 2023 despite a winning record, as he has the Yankees’ offence to thank for that. In eleven starts, he has given up 34 earned runs, 10 home runs, 19 walks and 59 strikeouts for a 5.16 ERA, 82 ERA+, and a 1.30 WHIP. These numbers were approaching more of those from his rookie campaign, and have been very uncharacteristic of him based on his strong performance the past two years. The news has gotten even worse for Cortes as he has just been placed on the IL due to a left shoulder strain to add to his already miserable season.

Zack Wheeler, Philadelphia Phillies

For Philadelphia Phillies’ co-ace Zack Wheeler, more or less the same story can be said for the veteran star pitcher. After posting a sub-3 ERA in each of the past three seasons, along with being an All-Star and NL Cy Young finalist just two years ago, Wheeler has struggled to find his groove thus far in 2023. He has given up a lot more contact this year and in doing so, has led to his 4.33 ERA (his highest since 2017), 1.21 WHIP, 99 ERA+, giving up 33 earned runs, five home runs, 16 walks and 79 strikeouts in 68.2 innings pitched. When things appeared to have started to turn around in the game against the Atlanta Braves recently where he went eight strong innings of shutout ball, he followed it up with a stinker against the lowly Washington Nationals, giving up seven runs in just 3.2 innings.

These are just a few notable pitchers among a long list that have encountered immense adversity in their 2023 seasons. Elite pitchers don’t just go from superstar one year to scrap heap the next, as there usually is a reason behind their struggles other than just a loss of focus or a string of bad luck. When it is happening all around the league to so many elite pitchers with a sound track record at the same time, it’s becoming harder to neglect the potential effect of the pitch clock on these players. Consequently, some adjustments should be done soon before it goes beyond control, as more and more pitchers can be affected as the season wears on.

Overall, Manoah shouldn’t worry too much now that he is in a less stress environment to work with. He should just focus on getting back his mojo, his pitching ability and his game, because if he wasn’t aware of it before, he should be now as there have been many others that are currently on the same boat as him this year. The main difference is that he is still young, so his chances of being able to readjust and readapt his mechanics to become an effective elite pitcher again will be a lot better than most others. So here we wish him all the best and hope that he comes back even hungrier than ever.

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