DUNEDIN, Fla. – Russell Martin’s value to the Toronto Blue Jays is indisputable and has been on display frequently this spring. But perhaps no pitcher on this staff stands to profit as much from Martin as Aaron Sanchez.
Which is why as Grapefruit League games go on it’s becoming more and more obvious that Josh Thole has a spot on this team. As manager John Gibbons noted on my show on Sportsnet 590 The Fan before his team went out to beat the Boston Red Sox 6-3 at Florida Auto Exchange Stadium, Martin is most comfortable playing 130-140 games per season. “That’s a full season for him,” Gibbons said. He will need to be rested, and Gibbons would rather give him a mental and physical break with knuckleballer R.A. Dickey on the mound – when there’s not much thinking involved, simply fastball/knuckleball and, in Gibbons’ words, “catch it for strikes.” That’s why Thole’s still in the majors as opposed to, say, a starter like Sanchez. At least, that seems to be the sales pitch the Blue Jays have made to Martin, who has made handling Dickey’s knuckleball a point of pride.
This is about maximizing Martin’s value to a staff that will likely include two callow starters — Sanchez and Daniel Norris — as well as Drew Hutchison and Mark Buehrle. The catch — pardon the pun — is that injuries to Michael Saunders and Edwin Encarnacion, coupled with a brutal offensive spring for auditioning first basemen Justin Smoak and Daric Barton, has created the possibility of platoons and default options breaking out all over the place (and don’t get me started about the possibility of an eight-man bullpen). Toss in the value of the left-handed hitting component of Dioner Navarro’s switch-hitting and suddenly he has more added value. At least second base has turned into a battle between two youngsters staking a claim both offensively and defensively — Ryan Goins and Devon Travis — as well as Maicer Izturis.
Thursday afternoon provided some ammunition for Gibbons’ assertion that Martin has bigger fish to fry than catching a knuckleballer. Sanchez, throwing a slider in a game for just the second time, fell behind 3-1 to lead-off hitter Brock Holt then blazed a 95 mph fastball by the Red Sox outfielder for a called third strike. During the at-bat, Martin suspected that Sanchez was going to be wild high early. After one pitch of first-hand evidence, Martin dropped down to one knee, holding his glove almost on the ground.
“I’m learning some things about myself,” Sanchez said later. “Russ wanted me to get as much extension on the delivery as I could. We were back-footing; if the glove is held lower, that drags my eye-sight down and helps me get the pitch down.”
This is not to say that Thole or Navarro is unable to pull off the same trick. But it does reinforce the notion prevalent in Blue Jays camp that Sanchez — whose status in the rotation was cemented when Marcus Stroman was injured, and whose 33 major-league innings last season were out of the bullpen — might be the pitcher most likely to benefit from stolen strikes and Martin’s athleticism.
“I’m still trying to find the arm angle on the slider, the pitch I hit (Jemile) Weeks with,” said Sanchez. “That’s OK. That’s what this is all about.”
Said Gibbons, himself a former catcher: “First thing, Aaron’s hard to catch and Russ has good hands.
“Throw that hard … he can shank them every now and then, and Russell should be able to catch them. It’s a confidence thing; Russell knows how good he is behind the plate and Sanchez knows he can let it rip, that he’s got a guy back there who can handle things.
“He just started throwing that slider. Its important he uses it during these games. I mean, you can do it on the side all you want ….”
And that’s the funny thing about spring training: you can work out all the permutations and draw up mock rosters and every now and then something emerges as logical as opposed to earth-shattering. That might be what has happened with the catching situation. Strange as it seems, Thole’s presence might actually have benefits for pitchers other than his knuckleballing partner.