Blue Jays' Sanchez: 'My goal is to be a starter'

Aaron Sanchez, the lanky right-hander who routinely hits 97 mph on the radar gun, has enjoyed considerable success working out of the Toronto Blue Jays' bullpen since arriving in the big leagues in 2014.

Still, despite his success as a reliever over the last two seasons, the 23-year-old made clear Tuesday his desire to earn a spot in Toronto's rotation this spring.

"My goal is to be a starter in the big leagues," Sanchez told reporters. "If they say that I'm going to the 'pen I have no control over that. I go to the 'pen and be the best seventh, eighth or ninth inning guy that this team needs me to be to win ballgames."

Following a strong debut campaign in relief, Sanchez opened last season in Toronto's rotation, but was bumped back to the bullpen in July after a seven-week stint on the disabled list. Despite battling inconsistency as a starter, Sanchez fashioned a 3.55 ERA with a 58.1 percent ground-ball rate in 11 starts, and was particularly effective in his last four outings before hurting his shoulder in early June.

Though Ross Atkins remained cryptic when asked if the recent acquisition of Drew Storen could compel the Blue Jays to transition Sanchez back into starting role this season, the newly hired general manager didn't rule out the possibility of having him compete with Drew Hutchison and Jesse Chavez for the fifth rotation spot.

"We feel so much better about having options now," Atkins said earlier this month.

Marcus Stroman, the Blue Jays' putative ace and Sanchez's close friend, believes his buddy ought to join him in the rotation, for the record.

"He's starter, yeah, 100 percent," said Stroman. Everything we did this year was for that. We don't work out twice a day for two months for him to be a reliever, so he's 100 percent ready to go out there and go seven, eight, nine innings every five days."