MARCH 19: Sanchez’s deal is worth $1MM, Jon Heyman of FanRag tweets.
MARCH 16: The Braves announced that they’ve signed right-hander Anibal Sanchez to a minor league contract and invited him to Major League camp for the remainder of Spring Training. The veteran Sanchez, a client of agent Gene Mato, had previously been in camp with the Twins on a non-guaranteed deal but was cut loose when Minnesota’s signing of Lance Lynn ended his bid for a rotation spot. Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported recently that Sanchez was nearing a deal with a new club (Twitter link).
Sanchez, 33, wrapped up a five-year, $80MM contract with the Tigers last season, during which he delivered two sensational seasons followed by three ugly years. From 2015-17 with the Tigers, Sanchez logged a total of 415 2/3 innings and surrendered 262 earned runs (5.67 ERA) on 462 hits (85 homers) and 131 walks. Sanchez still shows a penchant for missing bats (8.2 K/9 over the final three years of the deal, 8.9 K/9 in 2017), but his ground-ball rate has eroded and he’s become stunningly homer prone.
The Twins saw enough to give Sanchez a 40-man roster spot earlier this spring, though his contract came with a non-guaranteed salary of $2.5MM, and Minnesota opted to give him 30 days’ termination (roughly $417K) upon signing Lynn, thus allowing Sanchez to reenter the free agent pool with a notable parting gift.
With the Braves, he’ll serve as depth for a starting staff that looks likely to include Julio Teheran, Mike Foltynewicz and Brandon McCarthy but has some uncertainty beyond that trio. It’s not known what veteran lefty Scott Kazmir has to offer after missing the 2017 season due to injury, and while the Braves have an enviable stock of arms on the cusp of MLB readiness, none has yet solidified himself as a definitive big league starter, Sean Newcomb, Luiz Gohara, Max Fried and Lucas Sims are all vying for rotation spots, while righties Matt Wisler and Aaron Blair remain on the 40-man roster (though that latter pairing has had its fair share of opportunities and subsequent struggles in the Majors).
Probably depth but could lead to a Kazmir trade.
Neither need to be starting for Atlanta. They need to focus on getting their prospects starts and innings. I understand that if there are injuries, but imma be pissed if he gets recalled before Soroka
Nah. Gohara isn’t going to be ready until sometime in May, Kaz has nothing left and they don’t trust Wisler or Blair. They’re just bridging the gap from mid-April until Gohara is ready to go. If he can be the #5 and get in 2-3-4 starts until the big boy is ready to go, it’s all cool and good. It’s no more or less, and none of their prospects are in line to fulfill that commitment.
Exactly! I believe they will keep some of the young guys in AAA to keep stretched out and ready for mid-summer call ups
If you think Kaz has nothing left, what do you think about Sanchez? I’d trust Wisler, even Blair, before I trust Sanchez.
Also, Soroka is as MLB ready as he will be at mid-season. Ask any scout in the Braves system.
They’ll keep Soroka down a few weeks at least to manipulate his service-time, so they’ll probably run Sanchez out a few times to see if the move to the easier league makes any difference. I doubt it will, but who knows. Pitchers have come back from several years of poor performance before, although it’s rare.
I’d rather have Sanchez up here getting clobbered though than any of the prospects … we don’t need their confidence tanking … once the FO feels the kids are ready they’ll be up … I’m sure all Braves fans would rather see Anibal up giving up 6 ER than Soroka up giving up 6 because he wasn’t ready yet … now my only question as unlikely as it is … what happens if Sanchez is 4-0 with a 2.50 ERA when Gohara is ready? Now that would be interesting to see what the Braves would do then
Mantangeer—- Yours is a brilliant comment, sir.
It’s unlikely that he would sustain that, a la Mat Latos a couple years ago and Jason Vargas last year. But I bet the Braves would be happy to ride out a good run if that happens.
You have to get some veteran experience in the rotation and bullpen. You can’t run a youngster out there day in and day out
Wisler, Blair, Sims, Fried… I would rather have all them compete for the 5th spot right now until everyone is healthy or younger ones are ready. And quite honestly, I would like to see the braves go with a six man rotation to give another guy experience and not be quite as taxing on their arms. Regardless Sanchez is hardly a band aid answer to fill the 5th slot
Thankfully you’re not in charge.
Wisler and Blair both could use a change of scenery before they’re completely buried by every pitching prospect the Braves have. Swap another busted prospect for one of them.
16 million dollar salary. I’m sure other teams want to see more than a promising spring before committing to even a third of that.
* an eighth
The Tigers bought out the last year of that contract for $5 mil.
Then the Twins paid 427k to for 4 IP before they realized he was washed up.
Now the Braves are going to pay him to throw below replacement level gopher balls.
Enjoy.
Sanchez will be making the veteran minimum if he makes the Braves.
Eeeeeeeeeee!!
Sometimes making a move just to make it look like your doing something as a GM is wise. This is not one of those situations. Just move along and save yourself the time and money. Even $1 here is a waste in my opinion…
It’s a minors contract with literally no risk. What if a coach comes in and teaches him a new grip for one of his pitches and it improves the movement? I never understand why someone would be unhappy with a move like this. Pure upside (although I know there’s little chance of the upside to come to fruition). Can’t win the lottery if you don’t play, right?
There is no upside, he’s past the end of his career basically lol. Zero upside exist lol. There is no amt of money worth this transaction… no matter how low risk it is.
I’ve seen plenty of washed up guys bounce back. Never say never.
How easily one forgets Ben Sheets’ visit with the Braves. I had doubts, but didn’t outright reject potential.
Remember three years ago when Verlander looked finished? He got healthy or learned a new delivery or something, picked up a few MPH on the fastball, and is back to good now.
Verlander had core surgery that required 18 months to heal. After a down 18 months he came back to finish 2nd in cy voting 2016, followed with a strong 2017. Sanchez is not coming off injury. He gives up a ton of home runs. I am a diehard Tigers fan. Don’t expect anything from Sanchez other than stop gap innings and losses.
Exactly. Perfectly said.
Ben Sheets was an ace of a staff for a long time. Sanchez is no Ben Sheets lol. 1 good year out of his many very avg to below avg years does not put him in the same ballpark as Sheets
Sanchez was a solid reliable pitcher from ‘10-14. Did he ever deserve 5/88 million though? No he did not. The tigers gave out a lot of crooked deals during that time.
We can’t make deals because the GM wants to see what we have and then he starts signing crap again because he wan’ts to protect our young guys. Our rotation is starting to look an awful lot last years. One more thing/sign Mark Reynolds before he’s gone to,At least he can hit better than Schemp!
Is it just me or does Sanchez look a bit pudgy ?
For what it’s worth, he was in better shape in camp with the Twins, but photo evidence of that is scarce, ha.
Depth move with a veteran pitcher. He can easily step in if the Braves have an injury to a young starter or two. This is a cheap and virtually no risk move that can only provide upside. The worst that can happen is he gets cut, and never plays for the Braves big league club under this contract. That’s literally the worst case scenario.
Funny thing about Sanchez the last couple years: in between starts getting absolutely torched, he’d turn-in 2-3 real quality starts: like 7 IP, 1 run, 6 IP, 2 runs.. My guess is , it’s those isolated instances that led Minnesota and Atlanta to see if he couldn’t find some consistency in him…………….
I’ll be honest here, I’m not a Braves fan by any standards, but I’ve watched Kazmir pitch a couple times this spring and he didn’t look all that bad. Much better than Sanchez at least.
Kazmir usually looks good when he pitches. He has nasty stuff and a deceptive delivery. But he has just never been able to stay healthy for any significant stretch of time.
Animal Sanchez
Kazmir, Sanchez and McCarthy are all just placeholders. None are going to impede the progress of the youngsters
This is 100% correct!! Even so though, I’d still rather see Wisler or especially Blair get another shot at starting. Both pitchers have shown very well this spring, and both look like they are trying to make a statement.
Both, Wisler and Blair, one could argue, were brought up before they were truly ready, and it looked like it really hurt their confidence and progress. They struggled, got demoted, got brought back up for some spot starts, and then continued to be yo-yo’ed around,and forced to make mod-season adjustments. Then, while making those adjustments they were brought up to continue fighting for a spot, only to be really set up for failure.. To no one’s suprise, all of this ended up definitely hindering their progression as young starters.
I really don’t want the same thing to happen to Newcomb, Gohara, Fried, Soroka, or Allard. Those four, especially the duo of Soroka and Gohara look like future mainstays in the Braves rotation. I would absolutely hate to see their progress interrupted by being brought up too early, or by being yo-yo’ed back and forth from the majors back down to AAA…
All of five of Newcomb, Fried, Sims, Gohara, and Soroka look like they are ready to slot into the back of a ML rotation, but it certainly wouldn’t hurt them to get some more seasoning at AAA, get their arms stretched out and further ready to take on a full season of starting, and fine-tune their craft and pitches in AAA…
In the meantime, the Braves aren’t competing this year, so they should let some guys like McCarthy, Kazmir, Wisler, and Blair compete and hopefully build up their value. Then, around the trade deadline, the Braves can shop those pitchers around, aND they can add some younger pieces to their farm system..
After those trades are made, the Braves can use the rest of the season to get some of their prospects some more starts and some ML experience. Then, they’ll have a better idea of what they really have in terms of starting pitching talent moving into the 2019 season…
I think that should be the Braves best course of action for this season and moving forward…Also, it makes no sense to start Acuña Jr. on Opening Day…I wish fans would stop with that nonsense!! Since the Braves have an atrocity of a TV Deal, they are not currently operating like a big market team, and they won’t be until that deal runs out in quite a few years. With that being said, it makes ZERO sense to lose out on a year of Acuña Jr., just to have him start for a few weeks..It can ONLY do the Braves some good by having him start the year at AAA for a couple of weeks.
They should let him take those weeks to start off hot, gain that extra year of control, and then bring him up while he’s hitting well and streaking, and hope he continues that streak at the big league level…
Lineup: Inciarte-L8, Albies-S4, Freeman-L3, Peterson-R9, Tucker-L7, Suzuki-R2, Santane-S5, Colon-R6
Bench: Camargo, Brantly, Markakis, Culberson,
Starters: Foltynewicz, Newcomb, McCarthy, Teheran, Wisler
Bullpen: Ramirez-R, Freeman-L, Gomez-R, Minter-L, Moylen-R, Winkler-R, Vizcaino-R, Kazmir-L
DL: Flowers, Gohara, Kazmir
Option: Swanson, Blair, Schimp,
Waive/Outright: Sanchez, Brothers, Carle, Adams, Stewart, Whitley
There is so much wrong with this.
1. Option Swanson? No.
2. Have Santana on the roster? No. He’s bad at baseball, don’t be fooled by spring training.
3. Camargo on the bench? again, wrong.
4. Have Markakis on the bench? I mean he’s not great, but it’s not going to happen.
5. Also you have Kaz on the DL and in the bullpen??
Of course the DL is only possible if a player is imjured. Don’t know where Kazmir will fall. Why not Swanson to Grinnett? He is not one of the best 25 or best five infielders. Are you his bbuddy? Santana is the one of the best players on the team so far this spring. Camargo is the Braves best bench option. Markakis is not one of the best four outfielders on the team, where you been? The DL for KAZmir is for when Gohara is ready. Nice to see you do not question the Flowers move in favor of Brantly.
Swanson needs to be getting reps at the major league level. The fact that you thinks he’s not one of the top 25 is outrageous. Santana is just bad at baseball, look at his numbers throughout his entire career, we have a big sample size to prove it. Kakes is one of the better 4 when it comes to hitting. Similar OBP to Inciarte last year, and with Inciarte in CF you can afford Kakes in RF. I do agree with Peterson should be at this level, but I’d rather him getting everyday reps in AAA than platooning (which Snit will do).
Also idk what you had done with Flowers… I guess I assumed he got hurt recently and I didn’t know about it
Great post bravesfan. We need more of that around here.
Anibal Sanchez had 1-2 decent years like several years ago with the Marlins but has done nothing since then….he is garbage….