Aaron Sanchez is having finger issues again

Aaron Sanchez was scheduled to start Monday’s series-opener against the Houston Astros, but now Marco Estrada will be bumped up to fill in his place. Sanchez visited a finger specialist on the weekend, according to Shi Davidi, to have his right index finger re-examined.

That right index finger, of course, is the same one that was attacked by the suitcase earlier on in the season.  Thankfully, I guess, this doesn’t appear to be the same finger blister that derailed his entire season in 2017. That was his right middle finger, while this issue is his right index finger.

We don’t yet know if or when Sanchez will pitch again this season. Given the fact there’s only a week left in the season, we may have seen the last of Sanchez in 2018. If that’s the case, he’ll finish the year with a 4-6 record, a 4.89 ERA, and a worrying 5.0 walks to 7.4 strikeouts per nine.

It’s obviously really unfortunate how things have gone for Sanchez over the past couple years because it looked like he was evolving into an ace back in 2016. Even earlier this season Sanchez looked like he had his blister issues behind him. He started 2018 with four quality starts in his first five outings, but then noticeably started to struggle with command and velocity.

At this point, I’m not really sure what to expect from Sanchez next season. Can you really even pencil him into the rotation as a guaranteed, full season starter? As of right now, Toronto will be rolling with Sanchez, Stroman, and possibly all of Ryan Borucki, Sean Reid-Foley, and Thomas Pannone, which certainly isn’t ideal. You’d like to add a veteran free agent to keep either SRF or Pannone down in Triple-A, and you might have to consider adding another veteran starter to mitigate the risk of Sanchez not being able to pitch a full season for the third year in a row.