Five things we learned Monday: Aaron Sanchez reaching innings limit?

2:19 AM ET

The Yankees traded Aroldis Chapman to the Cubs, Chris Sale apologized to the fans and … wait, quick comment here. While his reaction in reportedly cutting up the uniforms was childish, doesn’t he sort have a point about teams emphasizing jersey sales over winning? If he’s uncomfortable wearing the 1976 collared throwbacks, then maybe it will affect his performance. Plus, the collars are stupid. Maybe they were OK in 1896, but they were dumb in 1976 and they’re dumb in 2016. Those are not throwbacks to be celebrated.

Our top five other things for Monday:

1. Toronto Blue Jays facing conundrum with Aaron Sanchez. The right-hander was terrific once again, tossing seven scoreless innings in the Blue Jays’ 4-2 win over the Padres, lowering his ERA to 2.72. Over his past seven starts he has a 1.53 ERA, has allowed just two home runs and hasn’t lost in his past 16 starts. Here’s a fun stat via research by Mackenzie Kraemer of ESPN Stats & Information: In the wild-card era (since 1995), the only qualified AL starter who had a lower ERA in his age-23 or younger season was Felix Hernandez, who had a 2.49 ERA in 2009. (Sanchez turned 24 on July 1, but this qualifies as his age-23 season.)

So here’s the issue: When Sanchez made the Toronto rotation out of spring training, the original plan was eventually move him to the bullpen since his career high in innings as a professional is 133⅓ in 2014. Last season, he threw just 102 innings between the majors and minors plus seven more in the postseason. After Monday’s game, he’s at 132⅓ innings. In June, manager John Gibbons was still saying of a move to the bullpen that “It’s going to happen.”

After his previous outing, however, Gibbons started hedging a bit, saying “You watch everything [Sanchez is] doing, you almost think [it’s] crazy to move him out of there. He’s a young kid, he is strong. He is the guy, really, that I would view out of all the guys out there he’d hold up probably more than any of them.” In other words: What, are you kidding me, the kid hasn’t lost in 16 starts and you …

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