TEMPE, Ariz. — There’s a story that has come to define Alec Manoah’s career and his pitching woes over the years.

I don’t buy pitchers.

He doesn’t dispute that he went from being an All-Star and Cy Young finalist to, in his own words, being unceremoniously “fired twice” in the span of two months. His major league career has been uneventful, no matter what depiction you believe. But he believes his predicament was fleeting. That’s not the new normal, even if the narrative around his career suggests the opposite.

“I feel like some stories can take on a life of their own,” he said at one point.

“I know there can be other perspectives and stories,” he said from another seat.

So, standing outside the Angels’ clubhouse in Arizona, sweating after sprint practice, Manoah was asked directly. “What are the stories and why are they wrong?” Why don’t you agree with them too?

“That’s what you said,” Manoah replied, dismissing the question itself. “I haven’t been feeling well for the past few years.”

“I think that’s the cycle of baseball. It’s just, ‘What did you just do for me?'” There are a lot of guys who had a really good year two years ago, but they had a bad year last year, and a lot of them are wasting that year for the rest of their careers.

“For me. It was a problem. I had a down year.”

Manoah, 28, pitched 196 2/3 innings in 2022 with a 2.24 ERA. He struck out 180 batters, had a WHIP of less than 1.00, and was worth 6 WAR. Manoah became a rising superstar for the Blue Jays due to his big man’s intimidating presence.

But the story he loathes so much would suggest there’s more to it than just a down season for Manoah, who signed with the Angels on a one-year, $1.95 million demonstration contract. Years of injuries, demotions, decreases in fastball velocity, and subsequent decreases in the effectiveness of his offspeed pitches followed.

In 2023, Manoa’s 5.87 ERA and 14 percent walk rate earned him a shocking last-resort option to the Florida Complex League. The organization has sent a number of pitching coaches and experts to help him.

Manoah, once the face of Toronto’s budding core, lost his fastball, lost his ability to throw strikes, and ultimately lost his health. The organization’s support never fully materialized, and years later, the man who was supposed to lead Toronto to the World Series ended up watching their games on television instead.

“At the end of the day, it’s just baseball, right?” Manoah said. “I have experienced many tougher things in my life outside of baseball.

“Keep that perspective and understand that at the end of the day, struggling in baseball is a first-world problem. Believe that every door that closes closes for a reason. Every door that opens is ready to bloom.”

Manoah hopes his comeback story will inspire others. But first he has to prove it on the field. The right-hander is feeling optimistic this spring. He believes he has turned a corner, admitting that the Angels are essentially losing a starting rotation job.

It’s been a long and painful process for Manoa, with his average fastball velocity dropping by more than a mile per hour in 2023. According to Baseball Savant, the value of four-seam pitches went from +15 runs in 2022 to -12 runs in 2023.

His walk rate more than doubled from 6.5 percent to a stratospheric 14.2 percent. He whiffed just 21.8 percent of the time, well below league average. After being demoted that season, he made his first start in the Florida Complex League, but ended up giving up 11 runs in 2.2 innings. Upon his return to the major leagues, he hit then-Angels outfielder Taylor Ward in the face with a fastball, ending his season.

When asked if he had any mental concerns about throwing strikes, Manoah said, “No, man.” “I don’t know, I don’t think I’m dealing with anything like that.

“I think for me it’s more when I don’t have the best mentally. I know I’m going to go out and compete with what I have.”

Manoa returned in 2024, but played in just five games before requiring Tommy John surgery. Literally speaking, the return was not easy for Manoah. He likened it to driving a car that isn’t yours. The feel and movement of the brakes is not good. But eventually you get it.

That’s the stage Manoa feels he’s reached now. He lost a significant amount of weight, now down to 285 pounds on his 6-foot-6 frame, and addressed what was believed to be one of the root causes of his slow speed and ineffective results. Plyometrics, athletic exercises, and cardiovascular training are staples of the off-season.

He is ready to “run through a brick wall” for the Angels because they are a team that believed in him. The Braves offered him a split contract, but the Angels, who had been working on a series of reclamation projects in the offseason, were willing to make him a full financial commitment.

He hopes that changing things by embracing a new coaching staff, teammates and front office will be for the better. While leaving the Blue Jays wasn’t a prerequisite for him, going somewhere new has a net positive. Somewhere he wanted to be.

“He checks all the boxes of a player you want on your team,” Angels pitching coach Mike Maddux said. “He’s had some injuries here and there, but he’s on his way back now. Once we can get him healthy again, he’ll be really good. His mental approach and his approach to his teammates is great.”

“He knows what success looks like. He knows what it feels like and what it tastes like. I think the sky is the limit.”

Maddux said the pitching movement from Manoa’s bullpen was really good. Maddux said the Angels don’t have a radar gun installed to measure velocity, but Manoah’s fastball averaged 93.3 mph during his first spring training start at the Arizona Diamondbacks’ facility on Sunday.

That’s a slight uptick from the low-90s he averaged during his rehab stint in Triple-A late last season. Whatever velocity numbers he puts up in the bullpen in the early spring, he said, they’ll likely be even higher during the adrenaline rush of a real game.

“Looking back, it’s been two years since I played in a major league game,” Manoah said. “It’s not that big of a blow to me. I keep to my routine and keep working every day.

“I believe in injuries, and I believe that some of the downs will only make my platform bigger. My voice will be a lot louder for people who are going through a lot of hardship.”

Manoah watched nearly all of Toronto’s 18 playoff games on television. A month earlier, he was DFA’d by the club that drafted him, developed him into a star player and handed him the ball to start the first postseason game of 2022.

It was the team that poured resources into curing him. However, years of injuries, struggles, and failed comeback attempts led to his unscrupulous departure. What the Blue Jays GM said Ross Atkins said: The event was held in September due to a “short list” and the team had sufficient strength for the postseason.

“Those are all my friends,” Manoah said. “Many of them I called my brothers. I was rooting for them 100 percent. I wanted them to win everything.”

He had no mixed feelings about rooting for his friends, but at the same time seemed to hint that it wouldn’t be easy to miss it.

“I played a huge role in the process leading up to the World Series,” Manoah added. “I wasn’t able to get there as much as I wanted to.”

This chapter has officially ended, both good and bad. A new story begins, and with it, the burden falls on him to prove that the stories being spread about him are actually wrong.

His year-long “downturn” is officially, finally, and completely over.