‘This kid’s got some kind of toughness’
Jays scout who saw Sanchez pitch in high school was impressed by his attitude
PORT CHARLOTTE, FLA.— Thinking back on his early days scouting Aaron Sanchez, the moment that stands out most to Blake Crosby is one that speaks to Sanchez’s head and heart more than his arm.
It was 2010, and Crosby was an area scout for the Blue Jays in central California. He was watching Sanchez pitch for his local high school team in the small town of Barstow.
“He was facing another kid in his league and they had kind of been rivals,” recalled Crosby, who still scouts for the Jays. “You saw the competition going back and forth. I think the kid hit Aaron with a pitch and the next inning Aaron came in and threw one under his chin and knocked him onto the ground. Then the next pitch he threw him just a filthy breaking ball and the kid just buckled. Then Aaron stared him down as he walked into the dugout.”
Crosby had been watching the 17year-old Sanchez for months, had seen his six-foot-four frame and whip-like arm, jostled with other ra- dar-gun-toting scouts for seats behind the backstop. But that was the moment when he really began to pay attention.
“I think that was where you really knew — OK, this kid’s got some kind of toughness to him. And it’s unique for Aaron, because you get to know him off the field and he’s such a nice kid, so it was really eye-opening just to see how quickly he could turn the switch on and get that toughness once he goes between the lines.”
Crosby was Sanchez’s signing scout when the Jays drafted him in the first round later that year. Nearly six years later, the lanky right-hander is at the centre of the most contentious debate at the team’s training camp as they prepare to defend their first division title in more than two decades.
Manager John Gibbons is expected to announce this week whether Sanchez will pitch in the starting rotation, where he has tremendous potential but a limited track record, or in the bullpen, where he has already proved dominant in his short majorleague career.
As a Jays employee, Crosby didn’t want to wade into the debate.
“Whatever the team thinks is best, I know he’ll do,” he said.
“As far as my opinion, I’m a scout, I want us to win a ring. So whatever helps the Toronto Blue Jays get to the World Series and win is all I care about.”
Sanchez, scheduled to make his final spring-training start Tuesday, has been the Jays’ best pitcher in camp. But veteran Gavin Floyd has been nearly as good, so the team could slot him into the rotation and use Sanchez as a late-inning reliever, following an industry trend of stacked bullpens.
“He’s a key guy, a lot’s revolving around him,” Gibbons said Sunday. “I don’t think either way we can go wrong, we just want to make sure we get it right. He’s going to be very valuable to us wherever he ends up.”
Gibbons said he believes that at this stage in Sanchez’s career, if he ends up a reliever full-time “there’s probably no going back” to starting.
“Some people disagree with that, but I happen to think otherwise. Either way he’s going to help us.”
Marcus Stroman, Sanchez’s closest friend on the team and his most vocal supporter, hopes Sanchez will join him in the rotation. The pair worked out together in the off-season with that as their singular goal.
“Our mentality we’ve been saying all winter is ‘Nine every five,’ and that’s because we both want to be in the rotation and we both want to go nine innings every five days and we did everything in the off-season to put our bodies in position to do so.”
Stroman echoed Crosby’s assessment of Sanchez being able to flip the competitive switch when he takes the mound.
“When we step between the lines, all the smiling and all the laid-back stuff goes completely out the door,” Stroman said.
“It’s a switch we’re both able to turn on when we need to turn it on, and once we’re off the field it’s completely just get away from it and relax and chill out.
“But we have that switch, and I feel like we’re a similar breed in that sense and people can honestly look forward to him going out there and competing just like I’m going to be out there competing.”