Toronto Blue Jays Season Preview: Looking at the starting rotation

Aaron Sanchez

It was a welcome sight to see Sanchez back on the mound and not holding back after dealing with a nasty blister issue last season. It must be a big relief for him to talk about his progress instead of the way his finger feels.

He will start his season with a tough challenge going up against the New York Yankees but for him, that is probably the best way to get back to form. Obviously, there is still a chance the 25-year old could deal with injuries again, but that is not something the team is concerned with.

Instead, the team is focusing on the strong performance their ace had in a full workload in Dunedin.

"“It’s huge for the team and for him personally,” manager John Gibbons told Rob Longley of the Toronto Sun. “It certainly answers a lot of the questions he had coming in to spring training.”"

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Generated 3/25/2018.

It is hard to find issues with how Sanchez pitched in spring, especially since he was trying to focus on his secondary pitches. It also helps that his fastball continues to be the best weapon in his arsenal.

If he can get a good mix with his fastball, sinker and curveball, expect many batters to struggle to get good contact off of Sanchez. It will also be important for him to get that connection back with Russell Martin.

As Rob Longley of the Toronto Sun reports, Martin has only caught Sanchez twice this season but it appears that the relationship remains strong.

"“He’s the catcher who is probably going to catch me a lot this year,” Sanchez told Longley. “So for him to get that look, and that’s why I wanted to be sharp, so he got a fair look at what I would be (on Friday.)”"

It is hard to say what the ace pitcher will be able to accomplish this season, mainly because there is no telling how many innings he’ll pitch.

Baseball-Reference projects the starting pitcher to go 89 innings, while ESPN has him going 138 innings. This is the 2018 outlook that ESPN posted for Sanchez:

"The poster boy for the differences in the baseball itself resulting in persistent blister issues for pitchers — but remember, it’s not the balls! — Sanchez made four separate trips to the DL (three specifically attributed to blisters), effectively ruining his 2017 campaign. He made just eight starts, saw his walk rate soar (12.0 percent) and never seemed to get a feel for his pitches at any point. It’s therefore not unreasonable to discard it entirely, as he still possesses the 95-mph fastball and hard-breaking curveball that earned him the No. 62 overall spot on the 2016 Player Rater. A full rebound to that level is no slam dunk, but there’s still top-40 starting pitcher upside here, even if it’s partial. -ESPN"

TSN‘s Scott Cullen had a different projection for Sanchez altogether, with him going 170 IP, 12 wins, 133 strikeouts, 3.68 ERA. This a more realistic outlook compared to what ESPN had, but that was probably written before spring training.

The Toronto Blue Jays will be grateful if Sanchez can go more than 150 innings and get closer to the 5.1 WAR rating he had in the 2016 season. It might be tough to ask him to pitch 192 innings and post a 3.00 ERA and win 15 games like he did in that season, but he has the talent to get it done.

Tip of the Tower projection: 176 IP, 13 wins, 3.43 ERA, 138 strikeouts.