The Toronto Blue Jays made it to the postseason for the first time since 1993, but even after a wildly successful season the team has a lot of questions to answer before 2016. Rumors suggest some specific changes could be coming to the pitching staff.
With David Price, Marco Estrada and Mark Buehrle hitting free agency, the future is uncertain for Toronto's starting rotation. And, as a result, the future is uncertain for their bullpen.
"There is a strong consideration being given to moving Roberto Osuna and Aaron Sanchez to the rotation, and if they can find the right relievers either via trade or free agency, they just may do it," writes Jon Heyman of CBS Sports.
"[General manager Alex] Anthopoulos said Marcus Stroman and Drew Hutchison will both definitely be in the mix [for the starting rotation], while Roberto Osuna and Aaron Sanchez could also both be stretched out in spring training, though that was no guarantee," adds Brendan Kennedy of The Toronto Star.
However, Anthopoulos will no longer return to the team in 2016, so everything is subject to change.
Osuna was sensational in the closer role as a rookie and finished with a 2.58 ERA, 0.92 WHIP, 75 strikeouts and 20 saves in 68 games (69 2/3 innings). The 20-year-old made 27 starts out of his 30 career games in the minors, so it's certainly a possibility he moves to the rotation.
However, his ERA as a starter was a 6.26 in 2014 and a 5.53 in 2013.
As for Sanchez, he's made 11 starts at the MLB level over the past two years, but he's been used as a reliever in his other 54 games. The right-hander made 80 starts in the minors out of his 98 career games and definitely showed enough potential to contribute in the MLB rotation. With that being said, there was more of a need for him in the bullpen since that unit was much worse than the rotation at the onset of 2015.
If the organization decides to make such a move and transition these two right-handers back to starters, he'll need to find a way to supplement that talent in the bullpen, which is losing LaTroy Hawkins to retirement and Mark Lowe to free agency. Brett Cecil, Liam Hendriks, Aaron Loup, Bo Schultz and Ryan Tepera will be back, but the loss of four capable bullpen arms is hard to replace.
The farm system would have been one option to solve this issue, but Anthopoulos traded Jeff Hoffman, Miguel Castro, Daniel Norris, Matt Boyd, Jesus Tinoco and Jairo Labourt in the David Price and Troy Tulowitzki deals. Four of those pitchers were of their top-10 prospects.
Their other young pitching prospects are not yet ready for the MLB, so it looks like the new GM will have to scour the trade/free agent market for both starters and relievers, depending on what his plan is for 2016.
Nonetheless, it's interesting to imagine the future of a young rotation that features Sanchez, Osuna and Marcus Stroman.
