Sanchez’s future in pinstripes hangs by thread
Beleaguered catcher to get contract offer
NEW YORK — It was not a surprise, but the Yankees informed Gary Sanchez they planned to offer him a contract for the 2021 season on Wednesday. The embattled catcher had been thrown into the conversation about being cut loose by the Bombers after an awful 2020 season in which he lost his starting catching job and was benched during the playoffs.
But he still has a chance with the Yankees right now.
The Yankees can certainly continue looking for a trade partner to package Sanchez, perhaps for young, controllable starting pitching, after they agree to offer him a contract. In his second year of arbitration, the catcher would be expected to get at least a little raise on the $5 million he was to make in 2020, but arbitration contracts do not
become guaranteed until after spring training, so there is little risk.
It gives the Yankees time to try and trade him, but considering where he finished the 2020 season, they may be stuck.
This problem isn’t Sanchez’s alone.
The Yankees have privately said Sanchez’s receiving has been an issue for years. They restructured their coaching staff after the 2019 season and brought in Twins catching guru Tanner Swanson with the edict to make Sanchez into a better receiver.
Switching Sanchez to a one-knee-down stance, the catcher never looked comfortable, said as much in spring training, and in the end there was little improvement.
It came to a head last season when new ace, Gerrit Cole, in whom the Yankees have invested $324 million over the next nine years, made it clear that he preferred pitching to backup Kyle Higashioka.
The Yankees always believed in Sanchez’s power potential, but they made it virtually impossible for him to remain in the lineup without catching. The Yankees locked Giancarlo Stanton, whom they traded for in the winter of 2017, in at DH because his history of injuries will likely prevent him from playing in the outfield again.
The problem, however, is that Sanchez’s bat was dreadful in 2020 and there was no desire to put him in the DHspot.
Maybe with the coronavirus pandemic shutting down baseball for four months in the middle of spring training and then restarting in July with an abbreviated 60-game season without fans, there are a lot of ways to write off the fact Sanchez slashed .147/.253/.365 with 64 strikeouts in 156 at-bats this season. The abbreviated season, the stop-and-start shortened spring training and that the Yankees had Sanchez completely change his catching style this season could all have factored into his struggles in 2020.
They cannot necessarily write off that in their most important games in 2020 they did not play Sanchez, benching him for four of the seven playoff games. They also can’t dismiss his lacking playoff performances over the years: .173/.217/.391 with seven homers and 44 strikeouts in 110 postseason at-bats over 30 games.
With this decision, the Yankees are committing to not only give him a contract, but they will likely have to give Sanchez a raise.
He was scheduled to make $5 million this season before it was shortened by the coronavirus. In his second year of arbitration, even after a down season, Sanchez will get a bump in pay for just playing.
Sanchez is scheduled to begin playing winter ball in his native Dominican Republic this week. He has not done that since the 2013-14 season, so this is clearly a sign he was not satisfied with his season and is looking to prove himself again in 2021.
At the very least, he realizes that the rumblings about the Yankees even considering non-tendering him is a warning sign, as former Yankees pitcher and current YES Network analyst David Cone said.
“The fact that we’re talking about it, the fact that it’s been written about, the fact that we’re hearing a lot of other catchers that are on the free-agent market maybe being talked to by the Yankees and them having been shown interest in by the Yankees, it certainly raises a red flag,” Cone said Tuesday night on the network’s “Hot Stove” show.