KANSAS CITY — Ross Atkins’ exhaustive hunt for depth continues.
This time, however, it came at the expense of upside and an arm that has shown a sky-high ceiling in the past, even if that feels like eons ago.
Sure, Aaron Sanchez has never been able to replicate his fine 2016 season and has generally looked a broken pitcher — both physically and mechanically — for three seasons now, but the Toronto Blue Jays’ ability to continually sell low on once-valuable assets has become stunning.
That’s exactly what happened at Wednesday’s Major League Baseball trade deadline when the Jays sent the 27-year-old right-hander, serviceable reliever Joe Biagini, and High-A outfield prospect Cal Stevenson to the Houston Astros in exchange for a single asset, soon-to-be 26-year-old outfielder Derek Fisher.
The biggest need in the organization is pitching.
That is quite clear.
Atkins has continually mentioned his quest for pitching, and he reiterated that Wednesday, shortly after trading two of them.
“(In) the off-season, we will be extremely driven to acquire any potential pitching that we can,” Atkins said.
Then what’s the rush to deal Sanchez, and, to a lesser extent, Biagini, a reliever with a career-best swing-and-miss rate and controllable through 2022?
Especially for an outfielder who’s been summoned by the Astros from Triple-A in three consecutive seasons, and failed to perform, putting up a .201/.282/.367 slash line in 312 plate appearances.
Nobody is closing the book on the lefty-swinging Fisher.
There’s an intriguing blend of power, speed and on-base ability, evidenced by the .860 OPS he’s posted in the minors since being taken with the 37th overall pick in the 2014 draft.
But with another year of team control to go for Sanchez, the question is, why now?
Why not hold for the time being, see how Sanchez throws over the final two months of the season, and then either reboot him in the rotation next spring or let him reinvent himself as a high-leverage reliever?
“Of course, we considered that,” Atkins said of holding onto Sanchez and trying to find a fix. “It really comes down to how much we valued Derek Fisher and how excited we are about him.”
Atkins on Sanchez trade: Fisher's upside was too much to turn away from
The Blue Jays traded Aaron Sanchez, Joe Biagini and prospect Cal Stevenson to the Astros for Derek Fisher, a 25-year old outfielder performing well in AAA. Toronto's general manager Ross Atkins discusses the deal and the excitement with Fisher's upside.
It runs much deeper than that.
Internally, the Blue Jays weren’t convinced Sanchez and his declining stuff could ever hack it as a quality big-league starter.
They also weren’t convinced his stuff would tick up enough to be the back-end-of-the-bullpen monster many would like to envision.
Further complicating matters is the fact Sanchez and his high-profile agent, Scott Boras, were balking at any potential move to the bullpen.
That internal evaluation left the Jays in a tough position.
Asked Wednesday evening after being traded if he expects to pitch out of the bullpen, Sanchez was adamant his future still lies in the rotation.
“I haven’t talked to anybody, but my plan is to be a starter,” said Sanchez, who started his media session by thanking the Jays and their fans for all the good times since being drafted 34th overall in 2010.
Potential future earning power is the reason why the Boras camp is adamant Sanchez is still a starter, even if the numbers — whether it’s the 6.07 ERA or the struggles the second (.947 OPS against) and third time (.987 OPS against) through the order — told a much different story.
They weren’t about to allow a ’pen shift to happen without putting up a fight.
“He’s driven to be a starter,” Atkins said when asked if he’s had conversations with Boras & Co. about a role change down the road. “He wants to be a starting pitcher. And that is very important to him. He certainly has the chance to do that. It’ll be interesting to see what happens and I’ll be pulling for him along the way.”
How surprising is it that both Sanchez and Biagini have been traded?
Should we be surprised that both Aaron Sanchez and Joe Biagini have been moved with still another year remaining on both of their contracts? TSN Blue Jays reporter Scott Mitchell shares his thoughts.
He’s not lying when he says it’ll be interesting to watch, especially with the Astros’ strong track record of either fixing or getting the most out of pitchers with their analytics-driven way of doing things.
Are years of finger issues, mechanical adjustments and declining stuff too much for even the Astros to fix?
We’re about to find out.
Another factor the Jays had to consider is the raise Sanchez is in line for this winter in his final trip through the arbitration process.
Making $3.9 million this season, there was even talk the Jays could non-tender him, rather than pay $5-plus million for an erratic rotation arm.
It’s not out of the realm of possibility the Astros consider the same thing after getting an up-close look over the next three months.
But the industry consensus around baseball when it comes to Wednesday’s trade is this: Huh?
The Jays do have more pitching than they did a year ago, but there’s no doubt this sell-low decision has the potential to come back and bite them, maybe in the way the 2002 move to cut Chris Carpenter loose did.
Fisher may prove to be an interesting piece, and there are similarities to Teoscar Hernandez and Randal Grichuk, two outfielders Atkins has previously targeted in trades.
This organization clearly has types.
Phillips believes in upside of Jays' deadline moves
Steve Phillips grades the moves the Blue Jays made before the trade deadline, including sharing his thoughts on Wednesday's deal that sends Aaron Sanchez and Joe Biagini to Houston.
“He’s come up in a number of discussions,” Atkins said of Fisher. “We’ve tried to get him, had an opportunity to get him, in what we viewed was a creative way, adding him to Joe Biagini and Cal Stevenson. He couldn’t fit better with our young core right now, adding that amount of control, the handedness, the speed, the ability to play centre, the success he had in the minor leagues, everything about his track record suggests that he is a great fit for us. Obviously, with any athlete there comes some risk.”
The risk is he’s just another so-so piece with flaws.
Too much swing-and-miss, not enough impact.
But Atkins believes there are unforeseen success stories within the organization that have yet to emerge, and Fisher at least has the physical tools to potentially be one of them.
They’ll need it to happen if this rebuild is going to work.
“Oftentimes I think that the best stories in baseball happen from depth,” Atkins said. “All too often stories across baseball where players are coming into a player development system and making significant strides and becoming players like (Jacob) DeGrom or players like Corey Kluber or players like Mike Clevinger, who didn’t have quite the pedigree. We’re confident we’re going to have … an incredible story that becomes game-changing talent.”
Biagini on trade to Astros: I really enjoyed my time here... I'm excited to go to space
After being traded from the Blue Jays to the Astros, pitcher Joe Biagini speaks to the media about the deal and, in typical Biagini fashion, jokes about his time in Toronto.
At the same time the Jays were selling low on Sanchez, they managed to avoid doing the same with closer Ken Giles, whose recent elbow issues scared teams away and killed the market.
Now, the Jays will hope to get Giles healthy in hopes of trading him this winter when the majority of baseball is looking for high-leverage relief help.
All told, it was a head-scratching deadline for the Jays in a number of ways, and the best move made was, perhaps, simply calling up top prospect Bo Bichette and watching him put together a three-game hit streak to begin his career.
The pipeline and player development side Atkins is currently overseeing is impossible to argue with, but the jury is absolutely out on their ability to augment that in other ways.
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August 01, 2019 at 09:40AM
