Blue Jays manager’s Alek Manoah gaffe is karma after ‘fat boy’ insult during Yankees series

New York Yankees fans likely needed a minute to breathe after the club’s eventful series against the Toronto Blue Jays. 

Blue Jays manager John Schneider didn’t cover himself in glory over the four-game set, which was headlined by Toronto’s broadcast postulating that Aaron Judge was cheating and Schneider subsequently snitching on the Yankees to the league citing concerns about where New York’s base coaches were positioned. 

Incredibly, Schneider outdid himself later in the same game when he mouthed “shut up fat boy” while looking directly at the Yankees dugout. It turns out, Schneider’s insult was directed at New York’s assistant hitting coach Brad Wilkerson. 

Schneider predictably said he didn’t recall whom he directed the insult toward and later justified it as a “heat of the moment” outburst . 

Already experiencing a nightmarish week, Schneider made arguably his biggest gaffe yet Saturday when he visited Alek Manoah on the mound. Unaware that the team’s pitching coach visited Manoah earlier in the inning, the Jays were forced to pull Manoah in accordance with MLB’s new rules. 

Blue Jays forced to pull Alek Manoah after John Schneider error

Someone get Schneider a copy of the rule book!

As MLB strives to quicken the speed of games, teams are permitted just one mound visit per inning. Upon the second visit, the pitcher must be removed. It’s an easy rule to follow, but the Yankees series showed that Schneider’s mind isn’t always fixated on what’s transpiring in between the foul lines. 

Karma doesn’t typically strike this quickly, but Schneider made it too easy. This will happen when a manager is more concerned with ratting on the league’s best player for (legally) stealing signs from a pitcher who was tipping his pitches … and body-shaming an opposing team’s coach over what’s actually going on in the game. 

The best part of Schneider’s epic blunder? The struggling Manoah was in the midst of perhaps his best outing of the season. Sitting at 85 pitches, the 25-year-old -- notorious for accusing Gerrit Cole of cheating the game -- had allowed two runs on five hits and a walk to go with five strikeouts. 

While the Jays got out of the inning unscathed, the Orioles walked off Toronto in the bottom of the 10th inning. If that's not poetic justice, then what is?

With the loss, Schneider’s club dropped to last place in the AL East. They’re only two games behind the third-place Yankees, but the standings were flipped a few weeks ago and New York has all the wind in its sails. 

Might be time for Schneider to fix up. Or, you know, he could continue on his current course and continue costing the Jays games and inciting rival players while embarrassing himself in the process. That works, too.