'It's a dying breed. And it sucks' - The decline of the starting pitcher -- and what it means for baseball's future
ALEK MANOAH IS a man of many opinions, and one of those is that with a gilded right arm and 6-foot-6 and 285 pounds of mass to buttress it, he should throw the baseball as much as he can. But during spring training in 2021, as the Toronto Blue Jays were mapping out Manoah's first full season in organized baseball, they approached him to discuss a different plan. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, he hadn't seen game action for almost 18 months, and he had pitched sparingly in the minor leagues during his 2019 debut. They wanted to be cautious — careful even. They wanted to set an innings limit, and they asked Manoah what he thought it should be.
