Blue Jays need to repair relationship with Aaron Sanchez

The Toronto Blue Jays need to do whatever it takes to get back in the good books of Aaron Sanchez and they need to do it as soon as possible.

The Toronto Blue Jays squandered a golden opportunity to score some brownie points with their young ace hurler Aaron Sanchez and his hard-nosed agent Scott Boras for future negotiations.

Rather than offering Sanchez a sizeable raise and extending an olive branch for future negotiations the Blue Jays front office signed Sanchez to the league minimum of $535,000 doing presumably more harm than good.

I understand baseball is a business and you don’t throw around hundreds of thousands of dollars just for the sake of doing it. However, this is the same pitcher that left money on the table and volunteered to take a minor league assignment last season to benefit the team.

The same pitcher that jeopardized his own well-being and pleaded with management to forego his pitch count restrictions so he could continue to help his team achieve their postseason goals.

The Blue Jays referenced some 10-year dinosaur rule for the reasoning why they stuck to their guns with the minimum contract, however, the Chicago Cubs rewarded their young star Kris Bryant with a $1.05 million dollar contract, the largest one-year deal ever given to a pre-arbitration player. The Los Angeles Angels rewarded Mike Trout in 2014 with a $1 million dollar pact and the Blue Jays division rivals Boston Red Sox re-upped Mookie Betts to the tune of $950,000. None of those three teams were required to but they felt the need to show good faith to their futures of the franchise.

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Aaron Sanchez spoke to the media the other day and I found one comment in his attempt to say the right thing concerning. Sanchez referenced that he was around for another four years so there was nothing to worry about. He sure did not go out of his way to reassure he would like to spend his entire career in Toronto or that he hoped to be here past his mandatory obligation. Probably a nothing comment but I found it interesting and somewhat concerning personally.

Below is the complete interview quote, for the full video click HERE:

"I’m here for another 4 years so there’s nothing to worry about. Obviously, we came upon a disagreement and that’s the part of the side that a lot of people get construed that this is still a business and it’s just a spot in where we didn’t agree."

"That being said, I have goals to accomplish for myself, goals to accomplish as a team, I have teammates that I have to pitch for, I have fans in Toronto that I have to pitch for so I am focussed on getting better every day. That’s something that they can take care of, my job is to come to the field and get ready to work hard and get better and that’s what I come do. All that other stuff is outside noise and irrelevant."

As you would expect agent Scott Boras was going to get a quote or two in about the signing of his new client. Boras appeared on the Jeff Blair Show on the Fan 590 yesterday and took an interesting stance reminding Blue Jays nation just how much of a super power the Blue Jays franchise really is.

Anything Boras spues is very calculated and obvious groundwork he is looking to lay for a later date. However, regardless of what you think of Boras, he definitely has a point and is pretty much bang on with his statement about the Blue Jays.

To listen to the entire interview click HERE:

"I think the Blue Jays franchise is one that is widely misunderstood in baseball because they are something that is much grander and much more weighty in the baseball process than a lot of people, I think in the States understand. I think the flexing of that muscle of this franchise is something that I hope happens."

"I hope under ownership takes a strong look at what they are capable in baseball and certainly, my expectancy that a franchise with this foundation, 40 million fans and a country behind it and a major communications network and the infrastructure of owning the television rights, stadium and all the other aspects of it that they have. A few franchises have that strength of that foundation and I would expect that they are in many ways the leaders in pursuit of many major stars in the game and I would expect that the executives running the team would advance that position that they hold in the game."

At the end of the day, Aaron Sanchez is the ace of this pitching staff and the type of talent you build a rotation around. There was no reason why the Blue Jays could not have doubled the hurler’s earnings for 2017 to reward Sanchez for his 2016 campaign and make him feel appreciated. This would no doubt have been reciprocated in future negotiations.

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Instead, the Jays now will have an uphill battle ensuring Sanchez does not test the free agent waters in four years from now with Boras riding shotgun. A small chunk of change would have gone a long way in this instance and the Blue Jays may pay mightily for this oversight.