Toronto Blue Jays: Francisco Liriano should be productive
With a six man rotation featuring newcomer Francisco Liriano and breakthrough starting pitcher Aaron Sanchez, the Toronto Blue Jays are in for a compelling second half run.
After the acquisition of starting pitcher Francisco Liriano from the Pittsburgh Pirates at the trade deadline, the Blue Jays have transitioned to a six-man rotation. The trade was a smart move for management and the decision to keep Aaron Sanchez in the rotation the right one.
Rather than turning to Liriano or Sanchez every five games, each will get an outing every six days that a game falls on. This will not only limit Sanchez’s innings and pitch count totals, but it should also improve Liriano’s effectiveness.
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Only a year removed from a 3.38 ERA and a 12-7 record with the Bucs in 2015, Liriano has regressed some in 2016 at age 32. But during his first three full seasons in Pittsburgh, the southpaw was generally impressive.
Across 86 starts and 510 innings pitched, he went 35-25 with a 3.26 ERA and a K/9 of 9.6. From 2013-14, catcher Russell Martin was playing in Pittsburgh and working in unison with Liriano. In 33 starts over the course of those two years, Martin caught Liriano to the tune of a 2.92 ERA, 204 punch outs in 200.2 innings pitched and held the oppositions batting average to .215.
Now reunited, President Mark Shapiro and GM Ross Atkins are hopeful the two players can rediscover the chemistry that won the Pirates a decent number of games a few years back.
While it’s clear the front office looked at the connection and rapport between Liriano and Martin before making a call to acquire the former, one has to keep in mind this is a different league and division — in particular, the AL East, that is full of big swinging bats.
His first test with the Blue Jays wasn’t against an AL East foe, though it was versus the defending AL champion Kansas City Royals. Liriano earned a passing grade on Friday evening, as he and Martin teamed up for the pitchers first quality start in a Blue Jays uniform.
Pitching six full frames, allowing only two earned runs and striking out five, Liriano did not factor into the decision but he held his own in a tight and exciting game Toronto ultimately won 4-3 thanks to a white hot Devon Travis going yard in the top of the ninth inning.
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Should the Toronto Blue Jays continue to get the same kind of production out of Francisco Liriano moving forward while also being able to limit Sanchez’s workload, this trade should be just what the club needed. Evidently, both pitchers and the rotation as a whole are benefiting from Martin’s work behind the dish this season.