MLB: Are six-man rotations baseball’s future?
By Tim Haberin
The Blue Jays will use a six-man rotation in an effort to keep Aaron Sanchez out of the bullpen while regulating his innings. Will the arrangement eventually become the standard for MLB clubs?
Baseball has the reputation of a sport that tends to change at a glacial pace, but the game has evolved noticeably, even over just the last several years. One of the concepts teams have toyed with in the past is that of a six-man starting rotation. The latest club to try it is this season’s Toronto Blue Jays.
The Jays have a distinct reason for expanding their rotation by one: they want to keep Aaron Sanchez as a starter down the stretch and out of the bullpen. For most of the season, Toronto had been very clear about its plans to move Sanchez into a relief role at some point to limit his innings. Until this season, the right-hander had never exceeded 133.1 innings in a year, which he logged in 2014 between both the majors and minors. This season, the 24-year-old Sanchez has already tossed 139.1 frames.
Of course, Sanchez pretty much forced the Jays’ hand with the sheer brilliance of his performance in the 2016 campaign. Through 21 outings, he owns a sparkling 11-1 record with a 2.71 ERA (best in the AL), 1.13 WHIP and 2.88 K/BB ratio. He earned his first All-Star nod last month and remains an intriguing candidate for the Cy Young. Toronto may have worried about David Price‘s departure during the offseason, but Sanchez is certainly looking like an ace right now.
The acquisition of Francisco Liriano from the Pirates on deadline day made the decision a bit easier for the Blue Jays brass. He’ll join Sanchez, J.A. Happ, Marco Estrada, R.A. Dickey and Marcus Stroman in rounding out Toronto’s extended starting staff. Simple enough. Could more MLB teams experiment with a similar arrangement in the future?
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Discussion and debate concerning a six-man rotation is nothing new. Teams have publicly mused about the possibility for one reason or another. Many thought the Yankees might implement the idea sometime over the last couple years to better accommodate Masahiro Tanaka. Pitchers in Japan typically take the mound once a week, and Tanaka has performed better on extra rest since coming to the United States. His partial UCL tear diagnosis back in 2014 also factored into the matter.
Teams are always looking for ways to better preserve their pitchers’ health. With arm injuries seemingly on a perpetual rise, lightened workloads (especially for young, developing hurlers) could help lessen the strain. Whether that is true or not is debatable, but with pitchers’ salaries climbing too, it’s understandable that clubs want to protect their investments.
Of course, those hefty salaries are also a reason why teams expect their starting pitchers to make around 30 appearances a year. If you have a marquee starter making big money, you’re probably not going to be too eager to take five or six outings away from him in a season. The Dodgers surely don’t want Clayton Kershaw to pitch less often.
So is the Blue Jays’ move to a six-man rotation a harbinger of the future? Not exactly. It just happens to be a good move for this particular team to make in this particular season. Toronto general manager Mark Atkins said as much in emphasizing that the team will remain flexible moving forward:
"“…what we’re trying not to do is paint ourselves into a corner. We’re also thinking about all of the alternatives. It’s amazing how many ideas have come out of this, and they have come from so many different places. The fact that we’re getting closer to September helps. The fact that we will have a player or two with options helps. The fact that our bullpen has corrected itself and is pitching better, guys are settling into roles, helps. Francisco’s openness helps. We’ll be able to skip starts, we’ll be able to do even more creative things when we get into September.”"
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The Jays say that they will proceed based on how Sanchez feels as the campaign heads into its final months. So depending on what happens, the six-man cycle might not be a long-term configuration. But for now it seems like a decent compromise between regulating Sanchez’s innings and maximizing the impact of the team’s best pitcher. Now tied with the Orioles for the AL East lead, the Blue Jays will hope it all pays off.