Blue Jays announce another injury update on Alek Manoah
Manoah has been slowly improving every day as he continues to aim to return to the starting rotation in about a month and it looks like he hit a new plateau in his recovery.
Insider Keegan Matheson stated that Manoah 25 pitches in a session this week against live hitters and one of his pitches even touched 95 MPH which is incredible after coming back from Tommy John surgery.
Per Keegan Matheson of MLB.com, Manoah threw 25 pitchers to live hitters and touched 95 mph. He's expected to throw two innings in his next session. -Graves
According to Matheson, if everything continues to go in the right direction than Manoah should be back in the starting rotation for August 1st give or take a few days which would be impeccable timing.
"This is encouraging," Matheson wrote, "And while that Aug. 1 date everyone's circled for a return seems a little optimistic, Manoah has still nailed his rehab process and set himself up to return in 2025." -Matheson
The only issue with Manoah returning is that the Blue Jays need to figure out what they will do with Bowden Francis prior to the trade deadline.
If they keep him and trade for another starting pitcher then they will end up with 6 starting pitchers on their rotation in early August when Manoah returns.
The smartest decision would be to trade Francis even if his stock is low right now because if they not they might get stuck holding onto to him and not using him.