With Marcus Stroman out for the year with a knee injury, it was unclear how the Toronto Blue Jays were planning to use Aaron Sanchez this season. Well, manager John Gibbons cleared it up on Thursday.

According to Sportsnet’s Barry Davis, Gibbons said Sanchez moving to the starting rotation is essentially a done deal.

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Sanchez impressed out of the bullpen during a 24-game stint with the Blue Jays in 2014. In 33.0 innings last season, the 22-year-old right-hander went 2-2 with 27 strikeouts, nine walks, a 1.09 ERA and 0.697 WHIP.

“He throws so hard,” Gibbons said on The Jeff Blair Show on Sportsnet 590 The FAN Thursday. “It has so much movement. He added a slider his last time out. He’s got a good, hard curveball, but it’s tough to command that thing consistently. The slider can eventually can turn into a strikeout pitch. If you add the command (and slider) to Sanchez, it’ll take him to a new level and to an elite level.”

When the Blue Jays opened camp, many believed that Sanchez was likely going to pitch out of the back end of the Blue Jays’ bullpen.

The Blue Jays originally selected the 6-foot-4 right-hander in the first round (34th overall) of the 2010 MLB Draft.

Sanchez would join R.A. Dickey, Mark Buehrle and Drew Hutchison in Toronto’s rotation with one open spot remaining for either Daniel Norris or Marco Estrada.