SF Giants: Why the team should look at Aaron Sanchez for pitching help

Whether the SF Giants make the postseason or not, they should give Aaron Sanchez a chance.

It’s the end of August and the SF Giants are fighting for a wild card spot with less than 30 games to go. And with the trade deadline fast approaching the team needs to figure out if they’re in it to win it, or focusing on a rebuild.

If they go with the former, they’re going to need help with pitching. Johnny Cueto has done more than his fair share of keeping his team in games and in leads. He almost had a no-hitter at the beginning of August.

But it’s clear no matter how much success the team can have, pitching is a sore spot. This is where former all-star Aaron Sanchez comes in. Sanchez can be a starter or a bullpen asset.

Let’s get the negative out of the way first. Sanchez is extremely injury prone. It was announced last season that the kid from Barstow, CA wouldn’t be ready for Opening Day in 2020 due to shoulder surgery.

However, this injury wasn’t the only one for Sanchez. Back in 2017, he was on the disabled list four-times for blisters. He never really recovered from being on the DL and his ERA showed it.

Here’s the thing about Sanchez though — he can be great.

The SF Giants and the rest of the MLB world have witnessed Aaron Sanchez’s greatness.

He proved it in 2016 with the Toronto Blue Jays. It was his first and only All-Star year. He recorded a 3.00 ERA to go along with 15 wins and 161 strikeouts.

Sanchez’s curveball and sinker are lethal when he’s healthy and firing on all cylinders. It’s just a matter of him being fully healthy and capable of playing at a high level again.

If he’s even able to be 80 percent of what he was during his 2016 campaign, he’d instantly make the Giants a dark horse to contend in the postseason.

Despite holding the final wild card spot, the Giants pitchers rank last in nearly every category. If the organization decides they can’t fully contend for the World Series this year, they could still give Sanchez a shot.

He could fill a hole from a deadline trade or even just give the team a different arm to analyze.