Gary Sanchez Has His Redemption
I wrote an article on May 9th entitled, Gary Sanchez is the Best Catcher in the game, and it’s not even close. I thought that was pretty obvious, but saw enough angry posts from fans that I felt compelled to defend him.
The Kraken made his major league debut in May of 2016, returned to the minors until August, then put together one of the best half seasons of any rookie in Major League Baseball history.
Sánchez played in just 53 games for the 2016 Yankees with a .299 batting average, 20 home runs, and 42 RBIs. On defense, he had the best average pop time to second base of all major league catchers, finishing at 1.90 seconds. He finished second in the voting for American League Rookie of the Year, finishing behind Detroit’s Michael Fulmer.
Sanchez made his first All Star team in 2017, breaking the Yankees single season HR record by a catcher, and hit 3 more in the team’s improbable post season run to the American League Championship Series. El Gary finished the year at .278 with 33 HRs and 90 RBI’s, won his first Silver Slugger Award and was universally viewed as the best catcher in the game.
Then 2018 happened. Sanchez had 2 stints on the DL, struggled in all aspects of the game, and battled through a groin injury for most of the year to finish a very disappointing season at .186 with 18 HR’s and 53 RBI in 89 games. He also had an MLB high 18 passed balls, despite playing in just over half the games.
There were fans who thought Gary Sanchez was washed up and should be traded. They called him fat and lazy. There were accusations that he was only worried about hitting long balls and didn’t put the work in on his defense.
Those people were wrong. When I wrote the original article in May, Gary had hit 11 Home Runs in 22 games, but more importantly, he was healthy. The 26 year old backstop passed Yogi Berra for most Home Runs by a Yankee catcher before the All Star Break on June 6th, and is chasing the MLB record held by Johnny Bench of 45. Sanchez entered the break hitting .245 with 24 HRs and 57 RBI in 68 games, with just 5 passed balls and the second best pop up time to second base.
Sanchez, who easily won the fan vote to be the AL’s starting catcher, had a huge double and scored an important run in the 2019 All Star Game, and also won the admiration of fans everywhere. Ask any fan of any other team who the best catcher in baseball is, and they will tell you it’s Gary Sanchez.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora, who coached this year’s All Stars, introduced his starting lineup early in the week, where he described Sanchez as a “Power-hitting catcher who dominates the game on both sides. What he’s doing defensively for the New York Yankees has been great.”
Sanchez responded to that by saying “It means a lot to me because people don’t know how much work I’ve consistently put into my defense. I think I continue to get better, and I will continue to get better. But it’s even more important because of the fact that pitchers depend on me. And they need me to be good back there.”
The best catcher in the game says he plans to get better. That’s great news for the Yankees. And bad news for the rest of baseball.
