RUN, DON’T JOG, TO DL
Yanks better with Gary on bench right now
ST. PETERSBURG – Ordinarily, the announcement that Gary Sanchez is going back on the disabled list with a recurrence of the groin injury that sidelined him for 25 days might be regarded as bad news for the Yankees. Not so Tuesday. One way or the other, after his appallingly lazy play behind the plate and on the basepaths Monday night, the Yankees needed to get him out of here.
Maybe Sanchez really is hurt. Maybe the MRI, as he reported, really did show the same injury in the same right groin area had re-occurred, but the fact of the matter is, it was a whole lot easier for everyone to just maintain he’s too hurt to play right now. Otherwise, Aaron Boone would have been in a very dicey position with his problem-child catcher.
Millions of Yankee fans, the TV viewers back in New York and the majority of the crowd at Tropicana Field, witnessed Sanchez commit his 10th passed ball of the season in the first inning Monday night, then lollygag after it, allowing Jake Bauers to score all the way from second with the first Rays’ run – then further gasp in disgust when he loafed out of the box with the bases loaded in the ninth inning to get thrown out at first for the final out.
After the game, Boone was hesitant to publicly excoriate Sanchez, saying he needed to review the replays, but he had to know the Yankee legions on Talk Radio were howling for justice – as in a stiff fine, a benching and maybe even a demotion. You could hear their cries: ”Where is Billy Martin when we need him?”
After all, we’re not talking like this was an isolated incident, or just one unfortunate bad game. This was Gary Sanchez, the guy some people have said had a lot to do with Joe Girardi getting fired. Gary Sanchez, the guy who was suspended at least twice while in the Yankee minors for attitude and indifferent play issues. Gary Sanchez, to whom none of the Yankee pitchers like pitching to. Gary Sanchez, who leads the league with 10 passed balls after tying for the major-league lead with 16 last year. Gary Sanchez, whose work ethic has been a perpetual work in progress.
When he arrived at the Trop Tuesday afternoon, Sanchez talked about how he had felt a little tightness the night before, both flailing around after the passed ball in the first inning and in being slow getting out of the box in the ninth inning, but insisted he wasn’t going to use the groin injury as an excuse.
“If I’m on the field, I’m good to go,” he insisted. “I could have done a better job. I thought I would get through the game without a problem.”
Whatever. He never said anything to Boone about it during the game and only casually mentioned it at the end of the conversation they had in the manager’s office afterward. For his part, Boone, after reviewing the replays, had no doubt Sanchez was guilty of gross indifference.
“I treated it like an accountable effort,” Boone said of his conversation with Sanchez. “That’s something that needs a better effort, especially at that time in the game, with the game on the line. You’ve got to get out of the box.”
By now, everyone has grown weary of Sanchez’s transgressions. How many times do we have to hear he’s still growing as a player, or that he’s working hard on his defensive deficiencies? When are the Yankees going to realize his home run prowess is not nearly enough to offset all the other baggage, especially when he’s also hitting .188 with 67 strikeouts and only 46 hits and a .699 OPS?
Apparently, though, Boone is still a believer, to the point where he sounded as if Monday night’s travesty, and the flak Sanchez took after it, might actually be a turning point.
He was certainly aware of the Sanchez problem when he was hired by the Yankees last December; he knew that Girardi had publicly called him out last August over all the passed balls and later paid the price for it (although the Daily News’ John Harper later revealed through sources that Yankee high command was actually more critical of Girardi for not being tough enough with Sanchez for blowing off his catching drills behind the scenes).
Count Boone as the latest Yankee operative to still believe Sanchez is going to fulfill the superstar potential the organization predicted for him from the day it signed him as a 16-year-old out of the Dominican Republic in 2009.
“He’s been through a lot of adversity this year. It’s still a learning experience for him,” said Boone. “I hope he’ll grow from this. I’m gonna bet on the player. I know deep down he cares about his craft.”
For nearly nine seasons now, he’s had a funny way of showing that. Of course, Boone is not going to admit what has been obvious all season long and that is, when Sanchez is behind the plate, he’s hurting the team. And now offensively he’s regressed — as in “can’t get around on the good fastballs”.
The Yankees are better off with him on the DL. A lot of people think a more fitting place to have sent him is the dog pound.