Ex-MLB pitchers ease the minds of panicked Blue Jays fans after Alek Manoah's FCL implosion

By now, you've seen the headlines and read the stories: Alek Manoah, one of the most promising young arms in the big leagues in 2022, has experienced one heck of a fall from grace in the current campaign, and things are only getting worse.

After being sent down to the Florida Complex League (or FCL) by the Blue Jays to adjust some mechanics and take some time out of the spotlight for a bit, Manoah made his first FCL start on Tuesday and the results were ... not good.

Against a group of 18 and 19-year-old players, Manoah didn't make it through three innings and surrendered 11 earned runs on 10 hits with two of them being home runs. This is just the latest development in a story that grows more and more heartbreaking by the day. The 25-year-old's MLB ERA sits at 6.36 after 13 poor starts to kick off his 2023 season and this FCL outing doesn't help matters.

Two people hoping to help matters, however, are former MLB pitchers Brandon McCarthy and Deck McGuire, the latter of which is a former Blue Jays pitcher.

McCarthy, a 13-year big league veteran, took to Twitter to share that he believes this dud of an outing is not that big of a deal; essentially saying that now is the time for him to try out certain things on the mound and see what works and what does not.

This probably is a smaller deal than it looks. If he's working on very specific things in the zone, super-aggressive minor-league hitters will tee off. If he was trying to be competitive then uh-oh https://t.co/Jn9gE7OGUz
— Brandon McCarthy (@BMcCarthy32) June 27, 2023

McGuire, a two-year veteran who spent a brief amount of time on the Blue Jays' pitching staff in 2018, responded to McCarthy, saying that the amount of MLB pitchers who randomly get lit up in the low minors is shockingly high, and that he is not too worried about Manoah either.

The amount of big leaguer that get WAFFLED in the MiLB is insane. This more than likely means nothing. Most of the kids in the complex league would swing at the rosin bag.
— Deck McGuire/ 맥과이어/ 猛快 (@deckmcguire) June 27, 2023

Shortly after, McGuire followed up his own tweet by recalling a time that he saw another former Blue Jay, Brandon Morrow, get annihilated in a minor league game. A month or so later, he was now watching Morrow strike out 17 batters in the big leagues. This goes to show how quickly fortunes can change in the major leagues, both in good and bad ways.

My first pro start in 2011 I watched @2Morrow23 give up 9 in like 3 innings… he was throwing 97-100. I was panicked (I most def didn’t throw 97-100).

Like a month later he punched out 17 in the pros.
— Deck McGuire/ 맥과이어/ 猛快 (@deckmcguire) June 27, 2023

Do with this information what you will, but to have former players who have been through these hardships themselves saying that Manoah will be fine is certainly reassuring. To have people who have been in these exact same shoes saying that there's no reason for alarm is a nice safety net to have here, and hopefully Blue Jays fans will interpret it this way as well.

Regardless, Manoah is young and is undoubtedly learning a ton as he battles through these tough times. Jays fans will believe in him and have his back until the end, so hopefully it isn't long now before we look back on this day, laughing to ourselves and saying, "remember when we thought Manoah could be done for?".

Ricky Romero knows exactly how Alek Manoah feels, offers advice