NO RELIEF IN SIGHT
Alex Sanchez will stay in the Jays’ rotation after a front office about-face,
HOUSTON— The closer Aaron Sanchez’s pending move to the bullpen came to reality, the harder it was for all involved to accept. Facing the possibility of Saturday being his final start, the chorus of dissent grew louder and louder both within and outside the organization, and the search for a creative solution to managing the prized 24-year-old’s workload took on more urgency.
In the end, team president Mark Shapiro and general manager Ross Atkins opted to change course from their original plan, announcing Thursday that Sanchez will continue to pitch as a starter for the foreseeable future.
“The most likely scenario is that he stays in the rotation for some time to come,” Atkins said Thursday before the Jays’ series finale against the Astros.
Atkins, who travelled to Houston on Thursday to meet in person with Sanchez and the Jays’ coaching staff, said the team will move forward — at least for now — with a six-man rotation, building in extra rest for all of the starting pitchers, including the recently acquired Francisco Liriano, who will make his first start on Friday in Kansas City.
Thursday’s decision seemed an abrupt change of heart for Atkins, who as recently as Monday had said Sanchez would soon be heading to the bullpen.
But over the last three days Atkins said he received a flurry of input from within the organization, including an important assurance from Liriano himself that he was willing to do whatever the team asked of him, including going to the bullpen if it came to that.
All of the team’s starting pitchers, in fact, were on board with the decision.
“That opened things up for us to think about things differently,” Atkins said.
“Then talking to Aaron about it and how strongly he felt about staying in the rotation.” The Sanchez controversy has loomed all season, but it became particularly heated in recent weeks as several Jays players spoke out in favour of keeping the hard-throwing righty in the rotation, pointing to how he has shown no signs of fatigue to this point.
If Sanchez were having a mediocre season, there would probably be little opposition to limiting his workload to protect him from injury. But he’s currently leading the American League with a 2.71ERA and is a legitimate Cy Young candidate in this his second full season in the big leagues.
The debate would also likely be less fractious if the science on preventing pitcher injuries was conclusive. But it’s not. There are best practices and cautionary tales, but no silver bullet.
“There’s no perfect answer, there’s no absolute,” Atkins said. “It’s almost impossible for us to be right unless we win the World Series and he’s healthy.”
While Sanchez could pitch the rest of the season as a starter, Atkins said there are still “thresholds” with which they are uncomfortable.
“There’s not a scenario where he pitches 220, 230 innings,” Atkins said, saying it’s “near impossible” to find other examples of pitchers who have safely made that level of yearover-year innings jumps. Sanchez is currently at 1391⁄ in
3 nings; his previous high is 1331⁄ 3.
Atkins cited the example of Noah Syndergaard, the former Jays prospect whose innings jumped by 45 last season; and Cubs lefty Jon Lester, who threw 57 more innings in 2008 than he did in 2007.
“We’re confident as long as things go well, that (Sanchez) can get to those levels and hopefully, beyond them.”
Atkins conceded that moving forward with six starters also has its drawbacks.
“We’ll have a shorter ‘pen or a shorter bench but if we can get through the next three-and-a-half weeks with that situation, I think all of pitchers will be better off for it.”
Atkins said they will be “flexible and fluid” through the remainder of the season and continue to monitor Sanchez for signs of fatigue. They’re working through ways to ensure he doesn’t have to be shutdown in the playoffs before reaching the “uncomfortable” threshold of 220-230 innings. In addition to making fewer starts because of the six-man rotation, Sanchez could also be skipped on occasion, Atkins said.
“We’ll be able to do even more creative things when we get into September . . . (If ) he feels good, he’s recovering well, we’re not seeing fatigue in any way and we get into an area (of innings) that’s unprecedented, we’re hopeful that happens.”