Aaron Sanchez just threw one of his best games as a Major League Baseball player. Heck, he might have thrown one of his best games as a baseball player, period.

Why, then, are the Toronto Blue Jays not squashing the rumours about shutting Sanchez down as a starter, limiting his innings or relegating him back to the bullpen?

If Sanchez’s 2.91 ERA over 80 innings and .833 winning percentage aren’t reason enough to keep him in the rotation, his eight innings of shutout ball with 12 strikeouts on Tuesday night against a star-studded Detroit Tigers lineup surely are, right?

Not if you’re the Blue Jays front office, which is looking for immediate bullpen help and a way to keep pitching numbers like Sanchez’s in steady supply for future seasons.

Sanchez has thrown 80.1 innings this year. If he throws 12 more he’ll have surpassed his career high of 92.1 innings set in 2015. Some, including the Blue Jays, will see this as a departure point from normal operating range to risky. The increased innings total puts Sanchez’s arm in uncharted waters, making him a prime target for injury pirates looking to sink innocent elbows and shoulders.

Overuse is certainly a problem, but it’s a systemic one that plagues all pitchers the same way. There is no precedent to support the theory that letting Sanchez pitch as a starter for a complete season puts him at any more risk than letting him throw out of the bullpen — no more so than any other professional pitcher who has no immediate history of arm injury.

Letting Sanchez pitch is no riskier than the Jays letting Marco Estrada go a full 180 innings last year, despite coming off a 150-inning campaign (his highest total ever) the previous season. Estrada also had more years of pro-level wear and tear on his arm than Sanchez.

Letting Sanchez go is no riskier than it would have been to let Stephen Strasburg pitch past the arbitrary 160-inning limit set by the Nationals in 2012, and certainly no riskier than the Mets letting Matt Harvey pitch more than 180 innings in 2015 despite having Tommy John surgery the previous season.

Overuse that spans years of pitching development, from amateur to pro, is what puts more arms at risk today than in years past. Sanchez, like almost every other pitcher in the game, is already dealing with the inherent consequences of that system. An increased innings cap this season doesn’t put Sanchez at any more risk than it does Marcus Stroman or a similarly aged pitcher reaching for his first 200-inning plateau. Shrinking that innings cap doesn’t make their job any less risky.

What puts Sanchez at risk — indeed, what puts all pitchers at risk — is not increasing the rest.

Unfortunately, many teams try to rest their pitchers in a lump sum during the back end of the season, limiting the targeted pitcher's ability to positively impact his club at a crucial time, like Strasburg sitting in the 2012 playoffs.

A better option is to limit innings on the front end, like the Braves did with Kris Medlen in 2013 when they let him pitch from the bullpen before moving him to the rotation late in the summer. This option has already passed for the Jays.

So what can they do?

An innings cap or cut-off point won’t keep Sanchez safe from injury or cement future Jays seasons of glory. If anything, shutting Sanchez down puts the current season at risk.

You can directly link the Blue Jays’ ability to stay competitive in the AL East to their strong starting pitching. It’s the best staff in the AL East at present, and one of the better staffs in all of baseball, with Sanchez quickly emerging as the team’s power-armed ace.

Hayhurst: Sanchez & Stroman pushing each other makes Jays better TSN 1050 Blue Jays Analyst Dirk Hayhurst joins OverDrive and talks about J.A. Happ's last start, Madison Bumgarner hitting in the Home Run Derby and says that Sanchez & Stroman are pushing each other makes Jays the better.

While all the Jays starters can shut down another team, few have the ability to be an overwhelming force like Sanchez. He currently leads the Toronto rotation in strikeouts and is 19th in all of baseball among qualified starters — a rank that shifts depending on who started most recently.

During Tuesday's matchup against the Tigers, Sanchez’s fastball sat comfortably at 96 mph, backed up by a mid-80s curve. The combination proved too much for Tigers hitters, as it will for many teams across baseball. As Sanchez gains experience, his walks total will continue to shrink while his strikeout totals go up. Any pitcher who can get that many outs himself is truly an ace.

Most analysts agree that the Jays’ offence hasn’t produced at the level it’s capable of this season and that the bullpen has been the team’s weakest link. However, recognizing and agreeing is no guarantee that Toronto’s offence will see a sharp return to last year’s world-beating form, or that the club will find adequate bullpen help at or before the trade deadline.

Sanchez, however, is having an amazing season. The Blue Jays should let him keep having it — even if it results in his arm exploding.

Naturally the Jays don’t want him to explode, which makes for a damned if you do, damned if you don’t scenario. They want Sanchez to stay healthy, but they also want to maximize his results. They want Sanchez to pitch in the postseason, but they need him to keep pitching the way he is, in the capacity he is, to get there. They need bullpen help and know he can supply it, but that weakens the rotation and opens a harder hole to fill.

The answer isn’t in limits or caps. It’s subtraction by addition.

If the Blue Jays switch from a five-man rotation to a six-man rotation all of their pitchers would toss fewer innings and get more rest. That not only helps Sanchez, it also helps Stroman, who is facing an even higher innings total differential this season.

It also makes better use of some of the arms in Triple-A Buffalo. My old teammate, Wade Leblanc, is lighting it up with a 1.57 ERA, while Scott Diamond and Drew Hutchison are both putting together solid, promotion-worthy seasons. They could add some depth by eating innings now, which would pay dividends later.

Getting the most out of Sanchez is a good problem to have. Good now, and good if and when the Jays see the postseason.

While my hope is the Jays expand the rotation or simply let Sanchez keep going, I strongly recommend they have him ready to start by the playoffs and consider a Sanchez-Stroman one-two punch at the top of the rotation.

That puts Sanchez and Stroman in the bullpen for high-leverage inning scenarios later in a series and lines up J.A. Happ and Estrada, two equally capable, though not as versatile arms, for key swing games.

Dirk Hayhurst is a former Major League pitcher with the Toronto Blue Jays and San Diego Padres and a best-selling author.

www.DirkHayhurst.com

Follow him on Twitter: @thegarfoose