Aaron Sanchez signs with fifth team since leaving Blue Jays
There was a point in time when Aaron Sanchez seemed to be the Blue Jays’ pitcher of the future.
But though he spent parts of six years in Toronto, those days seem like a distant memory now, with Sanchez now joining his fifth major league organization since leaving the Blue Jays.
Sanchez, who last pitched for Toronto in 2019, signed a minor league deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday, just weeks after being released from the Minnesota Twins organization. Since leaving Toronto, he’s also played games for Houston, San Francisco, and Washington while never being able to develop a consistent stretch of play like the flashes of brilliance he showed in his first few years in Toronto.
Sanchez last pitched in a major league game on October 4 of last season with the Twins, while his previous major league start was August 28, 2022.
Originally a bullpen arm, Sanchez entered the Toronto rotation first in 2015 before making it a full-time role in 2016.
Coming off an All-Star appearance, a 15-2 record and a top-10 finish in American Cy Young voting in 2016 ā just his third year in the major leagues at age 23 ā Sanchez looked set to be a long-term star in Toronto.
But late in the 2016 season, Sanchez developed a blister on his hand that would heavily affect his ability to pitch, with reoccurring problems with the blister limiting him to just eight starts in 2017. And he never quite found his form again before eventually being traded to the Astros in 2019.
Sanchez had a record of 32-33 with an ERA of 3.96, 458 strikeouts, and three saves in 146 appearances for the Blue Jays in his career, while he’s just 6-5 with an ERA of 5.21 and 83 strikeouts in 28 appearances since leaving the team in 2019.
- You might also like:
- Blue Jays legend Bautista still isn't over infamous home run-robbing fan