Alek Manoah, a former Blue Jays All-Star, is still without a team this deep into the season.

The Angels released him back on July 29. MLB.com confirmed it plainly: "Salt Lake Bees released RHP Alek Manoah."

He'd been in the middle of his first season with Los Angeles, and things went badly fast.

The 28-year-old went 0-0 with a 9.82 ERA across three games before the release.

Whether another club takes a chance on him before the season ends is genuinely an open question at this point.

Manoah was Toronto's 11th overall pick back in 2019, and he spent his first four seasons with the organization that drafted him.

He made the All-Star Game in 2022 at just 24 years old, part of a stretch that made him one of the more electric young arms in baseball.

Why his Blue Jays run still stands out

Over 75 games with Toronto, Manoah went 29-20 with a 3.34 ERA, numbers that reflected real front-of-rotation upside during his best seasons.

That version of Manoah feels distant now, given the injuries and inconsistency that have followed him since leaving Toronto.

Meanwhile, the Blue Jays themselves are still trying to lock down a return trip to October after last year's World Series run, their first since 1993.

Toronto sits fourth in the AL East at 73-73 through 146 games, going 7-3 over its last 10.

That included a tight, back-and-forth series in Oakland, one Toronto ultimately lost 2-0 in the finale after the two clubs had split the first two games.

For Manoah, the contrast is stark, watching from outside the game entirely while his former organization fights for a wild-card spot.

Whether he finds a new opportunity before the season closes, or has to wait until the offseason to relaunch his career, remains to be seen.