The White Sox and former Giants catcher Hector Sanchez have agreed to a minor league contract with an invite to Major League Spring Training, Sanchez’s agent, Felix Olivo, announced on Twitter.
The 26-year-old Sanchez has spent his entire career with the Giants, totaling 637 plate appearances across parts of five seasons while serving as a backup to Buster Posey. Sanchez hit .267/.299/.370 from 2011-13 over a span of 401 PAs, but that production slipped to .192/.230/.301 in 236 PAs from 2014-15. The deteriorated offense, as well as the emergence of Andrew Susac, made Sanchez a non-tender candidate in San Francisco this winter, and the Giants did indeed elect to let him become a free agent.
Sanchez has caught 26 percent of the runners that have attempted to steal on him in his career and has drawn roughly average reviews from pitch-framing metrics over the course of his big league tenure. The White Sox project to use Alex Avila and Dioner Navarro as their primary catchers in 2016, but Sanchez will make a quality depth piece that could be stashed in Triple-A, where he’s a .255/.313/.367 hitter.
He was a good Giant. Good luck in Chicago, Hector !
How about doing something of significance already, Hahn? Enough with the catchers and address OF, 2B, SS, DH/getting rid of Laroche, OF, maybe a 4th SP?…the team sucks as currently constructed and moves need to be made. If Adam Laroche, Carlos Sanchez, Micah Johnson, Tyler Saladino, Avisail Garcia are in the starting lineup Opening Day in 2016, I won’t be watching many games.
No one want LaRoche and that terrible contract
The 16 Sox will be hard to watch anyway since Ventura is still the Manager of this club. If this club does anything I have a feeling it will be more due to Renteria as Bench coach over ‘sleepy’ Ventura
Hector Sanchez provides insurance, especially for Alex Avila who has had some physical issues since his stellar 2011 season. The fact that he just turned 26 and is a switch-hitter also had to be appealing to the White Sox.