Blue Jays playing it safe with top pitching prospect Aaron Sanchez

DUNEDIN, Fla. – Aaron Sanchez is patient, if nothing else.

The right-handed starting pitcher is the Toronto Blue Jays’ top prospect and at just 21 years old already appears ready for prime time. In an age when players start their careers as early as ever, it wouldn’t be out of the question for him to play in the big leagues this year. And on a team with as many question marks in the rotation as the Blue Jays, there’s no question he could get a chance to start the season in the major leagues.

But he won’t, and he’s fine with that.

“There’s been a plan since Day 1,” Sanchez said. “Whatever they do with me I’m going to go there and do what I need to do.”

“There” very likely is Double-A New Hampshire for Sanchez, at least to begin the 2014 season. The hard-throwing California native has been brought along slowly since being drafted 34^th overall in the 2010 first-year player draft. The Blue Jays are being very careful with Sanchez, for good reason.

Sanchez is the last remaining pitcher of the so-called “Lansing Three.” At this time two years ago the Blue Jays had three of the top pitching prospects in baseball, all products of the 2010 draft, and all playing and learning together with the Single-A Lansing Lugnuts. Then the Blue Jays decided to make a splash.

Righty Noah Syndergaard was drafted four spots behind Sanchez but was dealt to the New York Mets in the trade that brought R.A. Dickey to Toronto. Justin Nicolino was drafted in the second round and was part of the mega trade with the Miami Marlins that brought Jose Reyes, Mark Buerhle and others to Toronto. The Lansing Three was down to just Sanchez. In both of those 2012 blockbuster trades Sanchez was the player general manager Alex Anthopoulos said was untouchable. That fact is not lost on Sanchez, and he wants to prove the Blue Jays kept the right pitcher.

“For them to keep me is a huge honour, obviously they [expect] a lot from me in the future and I need to show the organization and the city of Toronto why they kept me.”

Across the state at Mets camp, Syndergaard is turning heads with his performance against big-league hitters. On Wednesday, Sanchez saw his second action of the spring. He pitched two perfect innings against the Pittsburgh Pirates, throwing 30 pitches, 16 for strikes, and struck out two against mostly minor leaguers and touched 96 on the radar gun. Sanchez is a non-roster invitee to the big-league camp and, again, is almost certainly headed for Double-A but a major-league debut sometime in 2014 is not out of the question.

“He’s our top prospect. He’s got the great arm, now it’s just experience, he’s got to get out there and feel like he belongs,” Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. “He’s facing a little different hitters [in spring training] than he’ll face in the big leagues, but it’s still competitive baseball. He has to settle in.”

Gibbons and Sanchez both know what the phenom has to work on before he can make the big jump to the majors.

“Obviously fastball command improvement is key for me,” Sanchez said. “I felt like in Arizona [fall league] I was able to start throwing my off-speed [pitches] for strikes. That was a huge thing for me that I was trying to work on all year.”

“As hard as he throws and what his ball does, I don’t think he’ll ever be a real good command-type guy,” Gibbons added. “What he’s got to do is get in the zone and take your chances, look for some contact, let them beat it into the ground. He should get a lot of ground balls and he’ll roll some double plays.

“But to expect him to live on the corners, I don’t see that. I don’t want him thinking that’s what he’s gotta be. He’s got that natural ability, just let it rip.”

For all the hype and hope surrounding Sanchez, there are reasons for the precautions and kid-glove handling by the Blue Jays. Sanchez suffered the first injury of his career last May when he injured his shoulder. The Blue Jays also tweaked his mechanics and some insiders worry that his new delivery increases his risk of arm injury.

As a result, Sanchez was limited to 86 innings in Advanced-A ball with Dunedin in 2013 but struck out 75 batters and walked just 40. He also had four starts in Arizona Fall League and had the second highest strikeout rate (24 per cent) among players with at least 20 innings.

Command is still an issue as his fastball continues to

climb into the high 90s. According to Baseball America scouts “he cut his walk rate (11.1 percent) in 2013, but it was still 31 percent higher than the Florida State League average. He walked more hitters (14.3 percent) out of the stretch than he struck out (13.6 percent) in 2013.”

“With the velocity I have it can be tough to control [command]. I’m trying to do things behind the scenes then just go out and throw the ball,” Sanchez said.

The Blue Jays’ recent history of developing pitchers is not good. Ricky Romero is the last Blue Jays drafted and developed starting pitcher to be named an All Star, and that now comes with a big asterisk since he has completely forgotten how to pitch since that 2011 All-Star Game appearance. Before that you probably have to go back to the likes of Chris Carpenter and Roy Halladay to find homegrown pitching stars.

At 6’4” but still just 200 pounds, with impressive velocity and a big curve ball, Sanchez even resembles those former perennial Blue Jays All Stars, not that he’s trying to emulate them.

“I wouldn’t say I try to emulate anybody, I think I’m a mixture of a couple guys,” Sanchez said. “I just try to be myself. Obviously I can take things from guys that have the same velocity or same kind of curve ball, or same movement on changeup. I take stuff from them.”

While some of the other first-round pitchers from 2010 have begun their major-league careers (Chris Sale and Matt Harvey most notably), Sanchez knows he needs more time on the hill in game scenarios before he is ready.

“Getting my feet on the rubber is the biggest thing,” he said. “Obviously the more I get to pitch and be in a competitive environment the more things will turn around. You can only do so much in the bullpen.”

With the Blue Jays’ prospect cupboard left mostly bare following the deals of November 2012, Sanchez is the organization’s top prospect and next great hope. Sanchez is ranked No. 32 on Baseball America’s list of Top 100 prospects for 2014. (For the record, Syndergaard is No. 16 and Nicolino fell off the list after being No. 86 is 2013.) Fellow righty Marcus Stroman is the only other Blue Jay on the list at No. 55. Though Sanchez doesn’t pay attention to the rankings.

“That’s all just accolades,” Sanchez said. “It’s nice to hear but I try not to keep up with it. Some people tell me, and it’s cool, but for me, I’m just trying to get better as a baseball player and a human being.”