Toronto – Each year, when a new season starts to creep over the horizon, I think about Day 1 of Spring Training. The players will pour into the Blue Jays’ player development complex in Dunedin, Fla., with the same nervous excitement you once felt on the first day of school, only the new shoes and backpacks are replaced with new Range Rovers and Corvettes. This begins the wave of familiar faces strolling in from the parking lot … and just as many opportunities to quietly whisper, “Who’s that guy?”
At different points of the offseason, I’ll ask myself which question — or player — I’m most interested in on Day 1. Three months ago, it was Alek Manoah. It’s still Alek Manoah. Coming off a dreadful 2023 season that landed Manoah in the Minors twice, half-true theories growing new branches each time, Manoah enters ‘24 as the single biggest variable on this roster. There is a pitcher to be rebuilt here, of course, but that pitcher is a person first and foremost. The relationships Manoah has with the Blue Jays, his teammates and himself are important here. The baseball part can follow.
Manager John Schneider has kept in touch with Manoah over the offseason and planned to spend time with him in Miami. From observing Schneider over the years and speaking with so many of the players he’s managed, this feels like an opportunity for Schneider to shine as a leader.
This story was excerpted from Keegan Matheson’s Blue Jays Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
Source: https://www.mlb.com/bluejays/news/