{"id":540895,"date":"2026-01-27T17:56:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T17:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/540895\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T17:56:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T17:56:18","slug":"royals-sign-former-blue-jays-all-star-to-free-agent-contract-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/540895\/","title":{"rendered":"Royals sign former Blue Jays All Star to free agent contract"},"content":{"rendered":"

Royals sign former Blue Jays All Star to free agent contract<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Kansas City Royals<\/a> have stayed busy this offseason with under-the-radar moves.<\/p>\n

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The latest is signing a former All-Star pitcher from the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> to a low-risk free agent contract.<\/p>\n

The signing: Aaron Sanchez.<\/p>\n

Fansided’s Robert Murray reported<\/a>\u00a0Tuesday that it’s a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training.<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0Bo Bichette comments exhibit clear hyprocrisy<\/a><\/p>\n

Sanchez is 33 years old now and a long way removed from his peak with the Royals, but there’s reason for optimism.<\/p>\n

He just had a stellar winter in the Dominican Republic, where he won the league’s Pitcher of the Year award.<\/p>\n

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Sanchez threw 46.1 innings in the Dominican Winter League with a 1.55 ERA and 34 strikeouts.<\/p>\n

His last MLB action came in 2022, when he split time between the Washington Nationals<\/a> and Minnesota Twins<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays originally chose him No. 34 overall in the 2010 MLB Draft.<\/p>\n

He debuted in 2014, and he made the All-Star Game in 2016.<\/p>\n

That 2016 season was Sanchez’s best. He finished the year an absurd 15-2, and he had a 3.00 ERA with 161 strikeouts in 192 innings pitched.<\/p>\n

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He never threw more than 131.1 innings in a season again as injuries started to hamper him.<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0Andrew McCutchen is not happy with the Pirates<\/a><\/p>\n

Sanchez eventually spent a bit of time pitching for the Astros and the Giants before that split 2022 season with the Nats and Twins.<\/p>\n

His career MLB ERA is 4.16 in 174 appearances, 113 of those starts. He strikes out 7.1 batters per nine innings and walks 3.8, not an ideal ratio.<\/p>\n

Sanchez pitched in two Triple-A cities in 2023, both St. Paul and Reno.<\/p>\n

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In 2024, he pitched for the Blue Jays’ Triple-A affiliate in Buffalo but had a 7.92 ERA.<\/p>\n

He hadn’t pitched professionally at all in 2025 until his winter league performance, which has earned him a chance to impress the Royals in the spring.<\/p>\n

More MLB news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Royals sign former Blue Jays All Star to free agent contract originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2378],"tags":[51413,1151,5,377,2554,88,66349,55,60,20755,4,10,22488,7965,282,70,2553,71],"class_list":{"0":"post-540895","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-blue-jays","8":"tag-aaron-sanchez","9":"tag-andrew-mccutchen","10":"tag-baseball","11":"tag-blue-jays","12":"tag-bluejays","13":"tag-bo-bichette","14":"tag-dominican-winter-league","15":"tag-kansas-city-royals","16":"tag-minnesota-twins","17":"tag-minor-league-contract","18":"tag-mlb","19":"tag-pirates","20":"tag-robert-murray","21":"tag-the-astros","22":"tag-toronto","23":"tag-toronto-blue-jays","24":"tag-torontobluejays","25":"tag-washington-nationals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115968356322114290","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}