All-time Yankees agitator meets likely fate as roster casualty with Blue Jays

If we're being honest, us New York Yankees fans haven't had a single thought about Alek Manoah in quite some time. He fell off the map with the Blue Jays while the Yankees had enough turmoil of their own to deal with.

That said, Yankees fans didn't forget about the division-rival agitator, who once tried to fight the Yankees dugout over nothing and then called Gerrit Cole the biggest cheater in MLB history. They tracked his progress closely when he completely unraveled and got demoted to the Blue Jays' Rookie League after an All-Star 2022 campaign.

That's right: after a top-three Cy Young finish, Manoah lost his juice and went from a 6.0 WAR starter to someone who was subtracting wins from his team. Always a good reminder: if you want to talk your trash, just make sure you have more than ~1.5 years of success at the MLB level.

The road for Manoah got worse, too. He made just 10 total starts in 2024 (half in the minors, half in MLB) before succumbing to Tommy John surgery. He's yet to pitch in 2025 ... and the next time he pitches he will likely be elsewhere because the Blue Jays designated him for assignment on Tuesday to make room for Anthony Santander.

Yankees enemy Alek Manoah gets DFA'd by rival Blue Jays in Anthony Santander roster move

The last time Manoah was relevant was the 2022 season. Crazy to think about. And all the Blue Jays fans who swore he'd be a perennial Cy Young candidate are the same ones who have their butt cheeks slammed shut as they try to hold of the Yankees in the current AL East race. The Bombers are one game back of Toronto (but it's really a two-game deficit because the Jays own the head-to-head tiebreaker).

Another important thing for Blue Jays fans to remember? There is almost never a time they have the upper hand over the Yankees. New York ruined Toronto's run in 2021 and prevented them from clinching a playoff spot. They also clinched the AL East at the Rogers Centre in 2022. And in 2023, when the Jays made the playoffs while the Yankees fell into obscurity, Toronto went ahead and lost a playoff series to the historically-bad Twins. The year before? They lost to the Mariners. The Blue Jays were the doormat for two franchises who are inept in the postseason.

That hasn't stopped their fans from endlessly talking trash, though, or immediately going on the defense when anything critical is said of them. Manoah, however, will be one fewer voice Yankees fans will have to deal with as his time north of the border is likely fully over.