Sanchez eyes his return
Blue Jays right-hander felt good after bullpen session on Sunday
ST. PETERSBURG — It was difficult to tell who was wearing the biggest smile before Sunday’s game at Tropicana Field, Blue Jays RHP Aaron Sanchez or his manager John Gibbons.
Sanchez threw 33 pitches off the mound in a bullpen session and from the minute he stepped off it was pretty obvious that the bigright-hander, as well as Gibbons and pitching coach Pete Walker, were very happy with how it went.
“Everything went well. No pain in the finger,” said Sanchez. “Everything felt like it was coming out nice and easy. I was able to snap off my curve ball with no pain, with really no thought. Before, kind of when I got into that last bit of my delivery, kind of at the end, I was a little hesitant wondering if that thing (the nail) was going to split or there’s going to be another problem. But the last 4-5 days there’s been no issues so everything’s on schedule.”
The plan now is for Sanchez to pitch in an extended spring training game on Tuesday in Florida and hopefully join the Jays next weekend in Toronto, though the Jays are not sure exactly what day he’ll be able to start.
“But I’m very encouraged,” said Sanchez. “It’s moving in the right direction. It makes me happy moving forward.”
Sanchez, 25, returned from the DL last Sunday to face the Rays in Toronto and the outing turned out to be a disaster. The Barstow, CA native, who led the AL in ERA last season (3.00), lasted one inning when the nail on his right middle finger split, causing bleeding and discomfort. He was put back on the DL and that move has contributed the Jays disastrous start to the 2017 season. Sanchez said the nail feels fine now, even when he threw his curve ball on Sunday — the pitch that seemed to cause the most problems on his finger.
“I shaved it down to where that split was,” said Sanchez. “But there’s nothing wrong with the blister. When we took that side of the nail out, it gave me no problems, it freed everything. Like I said nobody knew the nail was going to split sideways in the start and that’s kind of what happened. It’s something you’ve got to deal with, understand if it takes 20 days to heal up and I’d be clear the rest of the year and for the rest of my career, in the big picture of things, it doesn’t really seem that big. So, yeah, it kind of sucks now, hopefully this is the end of it.”
The Jays are scrambling for starters. Injuries to Sanchez and last year’s 20-game winner LHP J.A. Happ, and the DFA at the end of last week of spot starter Mat Latos, meant that the organization has had to do the old starting rotation two step. Reliever Joe Biagini was forced to start on Sunday and the club will promote someone from Triple A Buffalo to start Tuesday’s game at the Rogers Centre against Cleveland. There was also some worry that RHP Marcus Stroman would not be able to make his next start on Monday because of arm soreness he felt last week in New York.
Like any pro athlete forced out of action, Sanchez has not been in a good place mentally. When you’re not playing, you almost become persona non grata. And it’s even worse when the team is struggling.
“Obviously it’s awful, you come to the park and you just feel like you don’t contribute,” said Sanchez. “So I’m an energy guy on the bench now. I get these guys going as much as I can, but it’s just one of those things man, you take it with a grain of salt and you kind of just move on. You understand that you can’t control that, you can only come and be the best teammate you can be. So that’s the only thing I kind of do when I’m here — make sure I get my work done, making sure I do the things I need to do to get back on the field, to get healthy and help these guys out, but at the same time be a good teammate and cheer these guys and hopefully give them that little extra boost to get that big hit.”