Injury case a lot to unpack
Sanchez reveals luggage mishap behind finger damage and looks to start fresh against Phillies
A freak mishap had Blue Jays starter Aaron Sanchez worried that he would once again finish the season on the sidelines.
The right-hander, who missed much of last year with blisters, has been out with an injury to his right middle finger since a brief June 21 start against the Angels.
The cause of the damage wasn’t made public, however, until Wednesday — when he admitted his finger got stuck in a suitcase as it accidentally fell over.
Sanchez had seen Kansas City Royals all-star Salvador Perez take his lumps for suffering a left knee injury on the eve of opening day after carrying a suitcase up some stairs at home, and he didn’t want to get laughed at. He also didn’t want to let down about 180 friends and family members on hand for that June start in Anaheim. Sanchez is from nearby Barstow, Calif., and had never pitched close to home as a pro.
“That probably didn’t help matters,” Sanchez, in Toronto for the first time in months, said before Wednesday’s JaysOrioles game, about his thought process back then. “But when you’re a competitor and this is all you know, sometimes you don’t think in situations.”
While that competitiveness might have cost him two months ago, it’s also what Sanchez will rely on when he returns to a big-league mound — tentatively set for Saturday against the Philadelphia Phillies, depending on how he looks after Thursday’s side session. He says he’s trying not to overthink it. “This is what I do,” Sanchez said. “This is my job. I’ve rehabbed. I’ve done what I need to do … I’m out there to compete and try to win — that’s it.”
Assuming he does return to the hill at the Rogers Centre on Saturday, he’ll be doing it under an assumed name. Players’ Weekend festivities around the majors include jerseys sporting each player’s nickname. In Sanchez’s case: Sanchize, earned when he helped the Jays reach the American League Championship Series in 2015, then went on to win the 2016 AL ERA title.
Considering the bad injury luck Sanchez has had, it’s perhaps understandable that he didn’t think he would make it back to the big leagues this season.
In 2017, he was limited to one win over eight sporadic starts — three in April, two in May and three in July — with a 4.25 ERA. It was a far cry from his 2016 performance, when he led the league with a 3.00 ERA and looked like he could become the rotation’s ace.
This season, he made 15 starts with a 6-9 record and 4.52 ERA before he got hurt again.
“I missed so much time the last few years, so just to be able to be back here and hopefully contribute … I’m looking forward to it,” Sanchez said. “When you’re on the (disabled list) as long as (I was) the last two years, it’s just tough. Just take it day-by-day. I know it’s super cliche, but that’s about all you have to do.”
Like the temperamental blisters, Sanchez couldn’t tell you why his finger took so long to heal this time.
He recalls he could barely bend the swollen digit when the injury occurred, although he was told there was no structural damage. It wasn’t until after the all-star break that it started to improve, but by that point he had missed so much time that he had a long way to go to build himself back up to game shape.
Sanchez gave up nine runs (eight earned) on 13 hits while walking 10 and striking out 11 in three rehab games with Gulf Coast League Blue Jays, Class-A advanced Dunedin Blue Jays and Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats. His pitch count reached 86 with the Fisher Cats on Monday, and he doesn’t expect any restrictions in terms of pitch count should he return on Saturday.
Accuracy is a question mark. In his last two rehab starts, he threw just 77 of 160 pitches for strikes. At the big-league level, he’s averaged 5.3 walks per nine innings this year and 5.0 in limited duty last season after just 3.0 in 2016.
The trend doesn’t seem to worry manager John Gibbons, who said the “great movement” on Sanchez’s pitches makes it tough, at times, to get calls.
“All he needs to do is get out there and pitch,” Gibbons said. “He’s had the injuries the last couple of years. That’s been the issue. You go out there and he gets his 30 starts, I think he’ll be right back to where he was — even better.”