What It Means:

Sanchez won the job by registering a brilliant 1.35 ERA with 19 strikeouts over 20 innings in the Grapefruit League. Gavin Floyd was also very good this spring as Sanchez's competition for the club's final rotation spot, but he will head to the bullpen and pitch in long relief initially. Sanchez, 23, carries high-level fantasy upside in a starting role. He will be on a workload limit of some sort, but the young righty is worth scooping up in a majority of mixed fantasy leagues.

We projected Sanchez for around 73 innings of work, a 4.08 ERA, and 1.21 WHIP with a 17.3 percent strikeout rate and 10.2 percent walk rate. The unfortunate thing is rate stats tend to get worse, not better, when a reliever shifts to the starting rotation, so it appears there is little fantasy upside with Sanchez at the moment.