HOUSTON – Daniel Norris makes his third start since his demotion to triple-A Buffalo on Sunday and Toronto Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos says the promising left-hander is making progress.
Specifics, however, about what the 22-year-old needs to show before he’s deemed ready for a return to the majors were much harder to pin down.
"I don’t know that there’s something specific," says Anthopoulos. "I think you can generically say throwing strikes is important, obviously, the issue here was the consistency of trying to go deep into games and making sure we were going to have that to not tax the bullpen. When he shows the consistency down there – it’s only been two games and what that number is, three, four, five, I’m not sure – and when we have a need and feel he’s throwing the ball well down there, he’ll be back."
In his two starts so far, Norris has allowed five runs, three earned, on nine hits and six walks with 11 strikeouts in 12 innings.
Meanwhile, Anthopoulos said Aaron Sanchez, who leads the American League with 29 walks in 38 innings, needs to cut down his walks but has the weapons to overcome them.
"His ability to get groundballs allows him to get through it but there’s no doubt you want to see that come down and it’s going to be important for him to continue to progress for it to come down," said Anthopoulos. "Being a groundballer allows him to get away with it and that’s why he could still potentially go deeper into a game, because he can get two outs with one pitch, and if he does walk a guy he can get those two outs fast. … For now it’s been fine but it’s something we’re going to watch."
Sanchez also struggled with his walks in the minors, but Anthopoulos believes the electric right-hander can find his way into the zone more consistently because, "he’s shown the ability to throw strikes."
"He’s still young, continuing his development," he continued. "There are times when he’ll lock in for an inning, it’s the inconsistency. A good example with him is if you go back and look at Chris Archer when he was in double-A, his walk rate was very high (5.4 per nine innings), he was 22 at the time, and it finally progressed and it finally got better. Hopefully Aaron follows that same track, he’s doing it up here, but at the same time we’ve seen him do it, even if it’s been for short periods, we just need to continue to work with him."
Some other highlights from Anthopoulos’ media session:
After a slow start at Buffalo, outfielder Dalton Pompey "is starting to play better, having good at-bats," said Anthopoulos.
Asked about whether the team might consider putting Jose Bautista on the DL to heal his shoulder injury, Anthopoulos replied: "Our medical staff says it is getting better, it’s improving, but he’s just so important to have in the lineup. … As long as he can still perform, which he is offensively, and it can still heal at the same time, we’re going to continue to run him out there. It is progressing, it is healing. Ultimately when he starts throwing no one knows yet, hopefully it’s sooner than later, but it is healing."