Toronto Blue Jays officially option Alek Manoah to Triple-A Buffalo

The Blue Jays announced that right-hander Alek Manoah has been reinstated from the 60-day IL and formally optioned to triple-A Buffalo, where he will continue his rehab assignment as he works back from UCL reconstruction surgery.

His last outing came on Sept. 6, where he had 5.2 innings of work on 90 pitches with six hits, seven runs, five of them unearned two homers, one walk and five strikeouts.

The Blue Jays had until Saturday to make a decision on Manoah, who would have exhausted his 30-day rehab window as well as three subsequent 10-day extensions as of Friday.

No more extensions are permitted, meaning the Blue Jays had to option Manoah or recall him to the majors unless a different injury were to emerge and create a need for continued rehab outings at triple-A.

The Blue Jays have five starters that are healthy in their rotation as of Thursday and Manoah will not be joining them as a sixth man at this time.

If he does not rejoin the big-league club in 2025, he should have a path back into the rotation in 2026 with Shane Bieber holding a player option while Max Scherzer and Chris Bassitt are set to become free agents.

Manoah had a 3.09 ERA with a 18:12 K:BB in 23.1 innings across five games for Triple-A Buffalo during his rehab assignment, which is where he is set to continue to pitch.

In 75 career MLB games, Manoah has a 3.34 earned-run average with 412 strikeouts in 420 innings pitched.

The 27-year-old finished third in American League Cy Young voting in 2022.