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Blue Jays’ News: The Wolf Man Signs On

By Wayne Cavadi

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It looks like the Toronto Blue Jays aren’t so set on their top prospects entering the starting rotation this season. MLB Trade Rumors tweeted out:

Heading into 2015, the Blue Jays looked poised to make a run at the American East title. They took a major blow last week when arguably their best pitcher — Marcus Stroman — went down for the season with a torn ACL. Initially, the Blue Jays had options in their minor league system with Daniel Norris and Aaron Sanchez who are not merely the top Blue Jays’ prospects, but amongst the best in all of baseball. 

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Signing Randy Wolf is most likely an insurance policy. They already signed Johan Santana to a minor league deal earlier this offseason, but fighting back from several seasons in a row of injury plagued seasons, if he were to make a Major League impact he would likely need extended spring training in the minors first. Brining in Wolf gives the Blue Jays options with Sanchez and Norris.

Norris, a Toronto fan favorite already, was thought to be basically a lock for the 2015 Blue Jays’ rotation this season. Originally, he would have been the fifth starter and slowly transitioned in early in the season, but with options like Wolf and Marco Estrada, Norris may be boosted to the four slot.

The 21-year old lefty has had an up and down spring, firing a shutout start followed by a not so sharp outing. His most recent outing was his best. He fired 3.1 innings of shutout baseball. He struck out four and only allowed one walk with three hits. This was coming off an outing where he was shelled for three runs over two innings.

Inconsistencies aside, Norris is poised to have a solid rookie season at the back end of the rotation. Aaron Sanchez was the question mark. Already in flux between the starting rotation and the bullpen for 2015, the 22-year old righty seemed headed for the fifth slot when Stroman went down. Perhaps the Wolf signing shows that the Blue Jays have realized Sanchez’s strength is in the bullpen.

Sanchez has made three appearances this spring training and all have been as starters. After a shaky debut, he has seemed to settle in, but of course “starts” in spring training are no more than four innings. He limited the Orioles to two runs over 3.1 innings in his last outing.

Sanchez shined last season in a late season call-up. He went 2-2 with a perfect three-for-three in save opportunities over 33 innings of relief. He registered a 1.09 ERA with an astounding 0.70 WHIP while striking out 27 and walking 9. With Brett Cecil, who is adequate at best, pegged as the Opening Day closer for the Blue Jays, Sanchez may be more suited for a bullpen role. He can start the season as last year’s Dellin Betances, but has a very good chance to end the season as the closer.

Bringing on Randy Wolf is a good safety net for the Blue Jays. Should they decide to go with Sanchez or even an Estrada type, they cut the seasoned veteran and move on with 2015. But Wolf, who has never been great, but has shown he can get you deep into ball games over his long career, gives the Blue Jays some wiggle room. It will be interesting to see how the pitching battles and rotation winds up setting in the coming weeks.

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