Sanchez sits, says weight not issue on D
CLEVELAND — Not putting Gary Sanchez in Sunday’s lineup wasn’t a message from manager Joe Girardi to the struggling catcher.
“The start is not the message, the message came from us verbally that ‘ Your defense needs to improve,’ ’’ Girardi said of Sanchez before Sunday’s 8-1 win over the Indians at Progressive Field when Austin Romine started for the second straight game. “You need to improve and you need to work at it.’’
Instead of facing Indians righty Carlos Carrasco, Sanchez worked on blocking balls in the bullpen before the game with Girardi watching and also caught Sonny Gray’s bullpen session. Sanchez leads major league catchers in passed balls (12) and errors (10).
“Physically, he is fine,’’ Girardi said of Sanchez, who has one hit in his past 11 at-bats. “We really liked the job Romine did [Saturday] night.’’
Sanchez said he “expected to be in the game,” but saw the lineup card and took a seat in the dugout.
While Sanchez said Girardi didn’t give him a reason for not being in the lineup, he did say the manager has talked to him about the problems he is having blocking wild pitches and reducing the amount of passed balls.
“It was a conversation about getting better and eliminating passed balls and I know that I need to improve,’’ Sanchez said through an interpreter. “To be 100 percent clear here, I have to improve on defense.’’
General manager Brian Cashman said Saturday that adding eight to 12 pounds of muscle during the offseason has taken away Sanchez’s flexibility, which makes it harder for him to get low enough to block balls.
Sanchez didn’t agree with Cashman’s assessment.
“I don’t think so. I just got to be better on defense,’’ Sanchez said. “I am up in muscle weight and I feel good. That’s all I can say about that.’’
Sanchez’s defense this season isn’t what it was when he spent the final two months of 2016 drawing praise for his handling of pitchers, blocking balls and throwing out runners.
Friday night the Indians scored on a passed ball and a wild pitch he didn’t block.