TORONTO — It’s not necessarily a demotion for Aaron Sanchez, who has owned the eighth inning for the Toronto Blue Jays but may no longer. And it’s not exactly a reshuffling of the club’s bullpen, which has been thrown into flux by Sanchez’s poor recent results combined with excellent work from Brett Cecil and Mark Lowe. But what’s clear is the Blue Jays coaching staff is rethinking how they will approach late game situations as they head towards the post-season, especially that penultimate inning.
“I think you might see [Sanchez] in the seventh inning on occasion. Depending on if there’s a heavy lefty group coming up in the eighth—middle of the order type guys—we might pitch him in the seventh,” Blue Jays pitching coach Pete Walker said Tuesday. “It just gives us more flexibility.”
Walker was planning to sit down with Sanchez after batting practice ahead of Tuesday night’s game against the Yankees to tell the 22-year-old reliever the Blue Jays would be backing him off from the eighth, an inning he has pitched in almost exclusively since being converted to a reliever in July. Sanchez may still see action in that inning if there is a run of right-handed batters due to hit, but Mark Lowe, who has a 2.65 ERA in 19 appearances since becoming a Blue Jay, will now also compete for those opportunities. Left-hander Brett Cecil, who has been outstanding of late and hasn’t allowed an earned run since June, will likely pitch the eighth if there are left-handed hitters coming to the plate.
“It depends on the situation, on who pitched the previous day, on who’s available, on righty, lefty situations—there’s still going to be plenty of opportunities for [Sanchez] to pitch in the eighth inning. But maybe earlier at times, too,” Walker said. “He’s going to get some huge outs for us down the road. But he may be used an inning earlier at times.”
The move comes during an especially rough period for Sanchez, who has allowed nine hits and five earned runs over his last five outings, and hasn’t recorded an out the last two times he’s been brought into a game. His splits have grown especially pronounced over the season, as left-handers are batting .282/.394/.494 against him, while right-handers hit just .172/.256/.207.
Sanchez and Walker have been quietly working on a cutter that Sanchez has utilized a few times in recent outings and will look to incorporate more going forward, primarily against left-handers. The pitch looks like Sanchez’s four-seam fastball out of his hand but features late, short movement cutting in to a left-handed batter.
Walker felt Sanchez’s sinker, which he has thrown 65 per cent of the time in 2015 and 80 per cent of the time in September, was being left over the middle of the plate too often against left-handers, and hopes the cutter will help Sanchez stay off the barrel of the bat. Walker also wants to see Sanchez use his curveball more often and effectively, which will give him a better mix of pitches and not allow hitters to sit on his two-seamer when he’s struggling to locate it.
“He’s still throwing the ball well. The stuff is there. I just think the location has been off a little bit. That sinker is finding the middle part of the zone, especially against left-handers,” Walker said. “He hasn’t really needed [additional pitches] in the past when he’s been successful. In June, you look at him out of the ‘pen, he utilized that sinker 90 per cent of the time and had a lot of success. So we kind of continued with the same plan. But when his command is a little off it can get him into a little trouble.”
Sanchez has battled that command lately, struggling at times to find the zone and throwing just 57 per cent of his pitches this month for strikes. Inconsistency in the zone is nothing new to Sanchez, who throws his pitches with a ton of movement and has run up walks in bunches at various times throughout his young career. He thinks he’s simply searching for the feel on his primary pitch and is confident he’ll find it.
“Lately I haven’t been pitching as much as I was before the rosters expanded, and I’ve been fighting the movement of my two-seam. It hasn’t had the same movement every time,” Sanchez said. “And there’s been a couple pitch selections on my part in certain counts that maybe weren’t the right pitch to throw. But that’s not an excuse. There’s no excuses in this game. It all comes down to execution for me.”
Sanchez hasn’t exactly been giving up laser beams either. His hard-hit rate is just 12.3 per cent in September, down from his season average of 21.2 and well off the 28 per cent MLB average for relievers. He’s also been getting plenty of ground balls, with a 76 per cent ground ball rate this month, which is substantially higher than his season average of 60.3. The issue most of the time has been that those quietly-hit grounders have found holes.
“It’s just kind of been bad luck, really,” Sanchez said. “I’d be more upset if I was all over the place and I was backing up third base after every pitch. But it’s a seeing-eye single this way, a seeing-eye single that way, then you throw a walk in there, which doesn’t ever help. It’s just a rough patch that I’m going through. I’ll get through it. It’s part of the game. I’d rather get them out now and be ready to rock when the playoffs come.”
Sanchez and Blue Jays catcher Russell Martin have discussed their pitch selection and feel like they have a better plan going forward. That, in addition to his new cutter and track record of success, makes Walker and Sanchez more than confident the young reliever will come out of his funk. It may just have to happen during the seventh inning for now, rather than the eighth.
“I’m not blaming anybody else. I’m the one out there making the pitches. I’ll get through it and understand and learn from what I’ve been doing wrong and get better,” Sanchez said. “I’m not worried about it. Not one bit. We’re still winning games and I feel like I’m still a big part of this team. So when the seventh or eighth inning comes around and my name’s called, I’ll be ready to do what I do.”