TORONTO — It’s never too early to start worrying about a gilt-edged arm, but Toronto Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins has a word of advice for those wondering whether the 88 per cent increase in Aaron Sanchez’s innings pitched this past season might have a carryover effect in 2017.
“We have to factor in that this was a longer season than he was accustomed to, but we feel it puts us in a better situation than he was coming into this year,” Atkins said. “Potentially, (we’re) looking at the start of his bullpens and the date when those things ramp up. He came into spring thinking he had to make the team as a starting pitcher … he won’t have to do that this spring. That will be the adjustment; it will be about getting ready for the first start of the regular season.”
Atkins could not have been clearer: there will be no innings limit on Sanchez in 2017, just as there really wasn’t in 2016. But just as clear is the idea that, in Atkins’ words, “you can’t say the gloves are off or it’s up to him,” when you’re talking about any player or pitcher. Atkins realized that the numbers 220 and 230 innings “were out there” as some sort of drop-dead figure for Sanchez’s 2016, but he stressed that in truth his availability was monitored from start to start.
This is a rare off-season for the Blue Jays, in that at first blush their starting pitching seems set, even with the anticipated loss of R.A. Dickey’s 200 innings to free agency. Sanchez, J.A. Happ, Marco Estrada, Marcus Stroman and Francisco Liriano give the Blue Jays a top five that not only exceeds most teams in the majors – it actually has room to improve, particularly in the cases of Stroman and Liriano. Good thing, too, since there is no free agent scheduled to go on the market that is an improvement on any of them, and with the possible loss of Edwin Encarnacion, Jose Bautista and Michael Saunders to free agency it stands to reason the focus in free agency, or more likely trades, ought to be on position players.
Uncertain at this time is where Joe Biagini fits into the mix, because as tempting as it must be to stretch him for depth, Atkins knows that “one of the reasons we picked him (in the Rule 5 draft) was because his stuff played up in the bullpen.” Prediction: the Blue Jays go hard at a free-agent reliever such as Kenley Jansen to bolster the bullpen, then see what Biagini offers them in spring training.
QUIBBLES AND BITS
THE ENDGAME
I don’t believe that Andrew Miller’s success is going to change the way teams use their bullpens during the regular season. I’m with Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon and Fox’s John Smoltz on this, I just don’t see treating a high leverage situation in May the same as in the playoffs. And let’s remember that Cleveland Indians manager Terry Francona’s hand has been forced somewhat by injuries. But if nothing else, it sure has reinforced the importance of velocity and spin rate out of the bullpen. The days of cobbling together odds and ends into a bullpen have passed.
