One-time ace had his elbow reconstructed in mid-June and is almost seven months into a rehab process that will take more than a year.
The big right-hander had his elbow reconstructed in mid-June and is almost seven months into a rehab process that will take more than a year.
“It’s been going amazing,” the one-time Jays ace said in an expansive interview for Thursday’s episode of the Star’s baseball podcast, “Deep Left Field.”
“I’m starting the fourth week of my throwing progression. I feel like I’m eight years old again … It feels great just to be able to play catch, to be able to feel healthy and just experience that excitement.
Manoah, who went 25-9 with an incredible 2.60 ERA and 1.01 WHIP in his first two big-league seasons, is pinging the radar gun at close to 70 miles per hour as he builds up. He’s well aware that as great as he feels right now, the next few months are going to be rough.
“I’ve spoken to a lot of guys who have gone through it,” said Manoah, mentioning former teammate Hyun-Jin Ryu among others. “I try to put myself in their shoes while they were going through it. It’s almost like game planning for: OK, when things get tough, I knew this was coming.
“I think that mindset that I’ve had throughout this whole process has allowed me — knock on wood — to be smooth sailing up to this point. When I’m having a bad day, I don’t get super down because it’s a bad day. I instead get positive (because) this is Tommy John rehab. This was supposed to happen.”
After a terrible 2023, the soon to be 27-year-old started this past season on the injured list with shoulder inflammation and didn’t make his debut until early May — roughed up in an 11-8 Jays loss in Washington. Over his next four starts, though, Manoah allowed a total of four earned runs. Then his elbow blew.
“Mentality-wise and passion-wise and heart-wise and competitive-wise, 100 per cent I was (back to my 2021 and ’22 form),” said the Florida native. “Stuff-wise, 100 per cent was there, but mechanically it was still kind of off.”