DUNEDIN, Fla. – There are days when a pitcher’s stuff doesn’t match up with the results, and the Toronto Blue Jays believe Friday was one of those days for Aaron Sanchez.
“I thought he was awesome,” catcher Russell Martin said. “Fastball had great movement, especially down in the zone. Guys were beating balls into the ground.”
Sanchez pitched 3.1 innings Friday, allowing two earned runs on five hits while striking out one. Despite the high hit total, he didn’t allow much hard contact thanks to a low fastball that sat in the 95-97 mph range. Sanchez threw approximately 56 pitches, relying heavily on his heater and mixing in a variety of breaking balls as the Blue Jays defeated the Baltimore Orioles 5-3.
Sanchez is making a strong case that he’s capable of starting for the Blue Jays should they decide to tab him for a rotation spot. That decision won’t be made just yet, but in the meantime the right-hander has impressed.
“I thought he was great. He’s got such a good, live fastball,” manager John Gibbons said. “I thought he did a good job stating to mix in some more breaking balls today.”
Marcus Stroman, Sanchez’s roommate and best friend, tore his ACL Tuesday, ending his season and creating another opening in Toronto’s rotation. Sanchez’s chances of starting climbed following the injury, and if he does end up starting, he knows he’ll have Stroman’s support.
“He’ll definitely be out there with me every five days,” Sanchez said. “If it happens to be that I’m in the rotation, he’ll be right there with me.”
The Blue Jays plan to fill Stroman’s rotation spot internally, with Sanchez, Daniel Norris and Marco Estrada competing for two open spots. The Tampa Bay Rays roughed up Estrada Thursday, but the Blue Jays will continue to stretch him out given that he was an effective big-league starter as recently as 2013.
Sanchez felt his change-up was “tremendous” Friday, and Martin agreed, a development that represents a marked improvement from his previous outing. The 22-year-old’s curveball wasn’t as sharp as he wanted Friday — Henry Urrutia hammered one for a double — but he did work on a new offering that resembles a slider or cutter. The combination of pitches resulted in lots of ground balls and whiffs.
“If you’re getting swings and misses, if you’re getting weak contact, you’re doing something right,” Martin said.
Sanchez struggled in his first spring outing, allowing two runs on four hits and a walk in 1.1 innings against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
But when he faced Pittsburgh five days later, he was much sharper, with three strikeouts and just one walk in 3.0 innings. Not only did Sanchez keep the Pirates from scoring, he did so with a mid-90s fastball and an above-average curveball.
Sanchez pitched out of the Blue Jays’ bullpen in 2014, allowing just 14 hits in 33 innings on his way to a 1.09 ERA. The move to the bullpen last summer cost Sanchez the chance to start for the last couple months of the season, but now that he’s getting stretched out again, he feels strong.
“I felt amazing today,” he said. “I felt like I could go and pitch two or three more innings.”
He should get that chance later in the spring. And if he keeps pitching the way he did Friday, it’ll be hard for the Blue Jays to deny him that opportunity during the regular season.