Sanchez delivers powerful message on Jay role
The Blue Jays will be making their team worse if they move Aaron Sanchez to the bullpen. Of that, there is no doubt. He is clearly more valuable pitching six to eight innings every fifth game than he is throwing one or two to preserve a lead out of the ’pen.
And there isn’t a starting pitcher available on the trade market — one that the Jays have the means to acquire — that would be an upgrade on the 24-year-old right-hander who, after Monday night, owns the second-lowest ERA in the American League and has even entered the Cy Young discussion.
But if president Mark Shapiro and general manager Ross Atkins have enough evidence to believe that limiting Sanchez’s workload is essential to keeping him healthy, that’s the move they will make.
Either way, the decision is likely to come soon — maybe by Monday’s trade deadline when a trade for a starting pitcher would all but guar- antee Sanchez’s move.
With that decision looming, Sanchez continued to make things difficult for his bosses by throwing seven scoreless innings Monday night, pacing the Jays to a 4-2 victory over the San Diego Padres, who were making their first ever visit to Toronto. Sanchez is now at 132 1⁄ innings on
3 the season, two-thirds of an inning shy of the career high he set in 2014, a season he split between the majors and minors.
Monday was the 15th start this season in which Sanchez allowed two runs or fewer, and he continued to do what he has done all year, mixing his heavy sinker with an almost unhittable curveball to stifle opposing batters.
He held the Padres to just three hits, two of them infield singles.
The front office has said there’s no hard innings cap in mind with regard to Sanchez, but they are monitoring a multitude of factors to gauge whether he is showing signs of fatigue, which can be a precursor to injury. Speculation, however, is that Sanchez will be capped somewhere around the 165-inning mark, give or take. If that’s the case, for him to still be useful in a bullpen role he will have to move there relatively soon.
After the game, manager John Gibbons was in no mood to talk about the issue.
“I’m not talking about that any- more,” he barked at the first question of his post-game media conference. “If it happens, you’ll know about it; if not, quit asking.”
The man himself was more diplomatic.
“My job is to pitch for the Toronto Blue Jays and wherever that may be, that’s where it’s going to be,” Sanchez said afterward. Pressed, he said he wouldn’t be upset by the move.
“You got to look long term with this. I’m not just here to pitch in 2016. I’m here to pitch five, six, seven (years), however long it is.”
While he acknowledged that there’s no “perfect science” on injury prevention, Sanchez suggested the organization is being prudent in its cautious approach.
“You see what’s going on with guys like (Matt) Harvey,” he said, a reference to the New York Mets pitcher who’s having season-ending surgery for the second time in the last three seasons.
“You don’t want to fall into a scenario like that.”