Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez is coming off a disappointing season in which he endured plenty of criticism for both his underwhelming offensive performance and his subpar pitch blocking behind the plate. Nevertheless, New York will again rely on Sanchez as its starting backstop in 2019, general manager Brian Cashman recently told ESPN Radio’s Michael Kay (hat tip to Mike Axisa of River Ave Blues). “We know what he’s capable of doing,” Cashman said. “And I’m already getting phone calls to be honest from clubs trying to knock on our door to see if he’s available. And he’s not … He will be our catcher.” Sanchez was the game’s best hitting catcher from 2016-17, a 754-plate appearance span in which he batted .284/.354/.568 with 53 home runs, but dropped to .186/.291/.406 with 18 HRs in 374 PA in 2018. A .197 batting average of balls in play (down from .308 the previous two seasons) played a part in that, though, and Statcast suggests Sanchez deserved much better offensive numbers than his bottom-line results. Perhaps thanks in part to that data, not to mention his past production, it appears the Yankees are counting on a return to form in 2019 from the soon-to-be 26-year-old. Sanchez is slated to play his final pre-arb season next year, meaning he’ll earn a bargain salary. That only adds to Sanchez’s appeal for the Yankees and the teams that have inquired about him.
More from the American League…
- There’s almost no chance the Indians will re-sign pending free-agent outfielder Lonnie Chisenhall, Jordan Bastian of MLB.com writes. The 30-year-old’s coming off his second straight injury-plagued season (he played just 82 games in 2017 and only 29 in ’18), and the Indians seem to have a cheaper in-house replacement in Tyler Naquin, Bastian observes. Chisenhall, to his credit, was a strong offensive contributor during his limited playing time over the past couple years. He has also been a member of the Cleveland organization since it drafted him 29th overall in 2008, so a parting of ways would mean the end of a long union between the two sides.
- The Orioles came in second in the race for Cuban pitching prospect Sandy Gaston, whom the Rays reeled in earlier this week, according to Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com. Meanwhile, the Mesa brothers – two other Orioles targets who joined the Marlins last weekend – were essentially a package deal, despite earlier reports to the contrary, per Kubatko. Although Baltimore had the most international pool space available, it lost out on all three prospects, leading to questions as to what went wrong for the beleaguered franchise.
Sanchez single-handedly won games this year being clutch. Optimistic for 2019.
How many did he lose defensively and lack of hustle? Not knocking his offensive ability it’s definitely there but I don’t believe he can catch much longer at the rate.
Media always focuses on the negatives w/ Sanchez. May won more than lost, count at least 4+ winners
How many passed balls led to a loss this year?
He lead the league in passed balls while only playing half the season.
That still doesn’t answer my question.
Doesnt sound like many led to a game winning run in the bottom of the 9th. He’s the worst C at blocking pitches in the dirt for sure, needs to work on it, but can you quantify the number of games lost, as a direct result of those passed balls
May have* won more than lost
Sorry to bring up how baseball is played as opposed to stats…..
When a pitcher is in a critical situation with Sanchez catching and runners on base – particularly on 3rd base, he does not want to risk throwing any sort of breaking pitch with a strong downward break. It allows opposing batters to sit on a fast ball, or a change if said pitcher is known to have little movement on his. This is even better then sign stealing.
You got a stat on that?
Yah, but how many of those situations happen in a tie game during the bottom of the 9th with 2 outs and a runner on 3rd? Because if it doesn’t happen then, it’s not the reason they lost the game apparently.
Yah the stat is Sanchez sucks
Priggs89;
Your comment is not too bright.
First of all, games turn in any inning no matter how many are out.
But you missed the point. Apparently you never played baseball. To the players, most of the game is mental. When a pitcher cannot throw all his pitches, he’s cornered. It’s giving a professional hitter the edge. That is huge.
By the way, the Indians had the same problem with Carlos Santana. Finally Francona had to move him to DH/1B. The pitchers relaxed and started doing better.
I saw at least one where his defense lost them the game, and I saw maybe 5 Yankees games.
Must be a red sux fan.
But he also lost games with subpar performances. The Yankees need to add players who get on base, to coincide with their feast or famine hitters (Sanchez, Stanton, and to a certain extent Judge (with the exception that he walks.) they can hit all the HRs they want, but the ALDS showed what happens to their offense if the ball doesn’t fly out of the park.
And a liability in 84 more. I’m not as optimistic.
So did Saltalamachica when his bat was working, His glove still cost his team(s) games because he was a poor defender, framer and caller of games, regardless of whether or no certain catchers like to have conferences on the mound at every opportunity.
He’ll have to hit or have a feeling Cashman won’t tolerate a weak offensive output for long in 2019 and swing some kind of trade, that is if he doesn’t have some kind of fall back option this winter should an opportunity fall into his lap.
I’m pretty sure Sanchez is a better overall defensive catcher then Salty was. Salty didn’t have Sanchize arm and overall framing.
Salty was actually a much better pitch frame than Sanchez. They are both horrible defenders, but Salty was an above average framer during his run with the sox
When it comes to Defense, “He is the Butcher of the Bronx”.
You’ve gone way past any chance of winning on this one…
The O’s are in a stretch where it’s going to be tough for them to convince quality players, both free agents and international, to join them. Big money might convince a few, but it will most certainly have to be wild overpays. They are going to have to rely on trades and hitting on a lot of draft picks. Even with the draft picks, paying over slot to early picks will likely be mandatory.
I don’t envy the O’s fans for what will be a lengthy rebuild.
Obviously you dont know our minors very well.
Top pitchers in DL Hall, Michael Bauman, Zac Lowther, kegean Akin. Not to mention the top pick of Grayson Rodriguez. Tons of quality relief pitchers coming from trades made.
Hitting wise. Hays will rebound from Ankle surgery, Mountcastle can hit with the best don’t know where it will be yet. 2nd 3rd or the OF. Not to mention Diaz we got for Manny.
Plus Bobby Witt Jr who we will most likely pick 1st overall
A couple years and we will be right back in the thick of things.
Obviously I would do a few things differently. I would trade Dylan and Givens for the best packages we can get. I’d keep Trey only because I like the way he plays the game amd he can be the next “Jones” as far as team leader. The Davis contract is eat and most likely eat Trumbos.
This team isnt as bad a rebuild as many think.
Going by farm system rankings from the dude paid to evaluate things like that. The Os rank pretty low. So until proven other wise. I’ll believe the professional scouts and not the Fan Boys
The O’s farm system went up significantly at years end. Are they the best? No. But they made tough calls to make it much better for the future. And it’s only gonna get better with the draft and finally signing INL free agents. (The added 5 more this week). It’s a long road, but not as long as most think.
Who are those guys you just mentioned? A ballplayers? Remember prospects are just prospects .Most don’t pan out
Good points.
Chisenhall was having, perhaps, his best season offensively when he went down with the calf strain. That strain also hurt his defensive efforts prior to being place on the DL for the remainder of the season.. It would not be a huge surprise to see the Indians make a make good, incentive laden one year deal with Chiz.. He can regain his value and cash in to start the 2020 season.. or make the same effort with another club where his history of being a true team member will need to be earned..
I have been thinking they should offer him something like 2-3 million with 500k incentives every 10 games played from 100 to 140. I would rather take the risk he gets hurt and be out 3 million than pay Guyer that much when we know he isn’t worth it.
They have a handful of half-assed OFs that would provide depth for other teams but they’re forced to get substantial PT in Cleveland. So it makes little sense to pay the money he might get to bring him back and worry about staying healthy. Thanks for your service Lonnie, but good luck elsewhere.
Gary will be fine
His career will not get better. A simple eye test drift
The O’s have put themselves in one of the worst situations they ever could have, that organization is such a mess and everyone knows it. From the front office to the players. There just garbage and who would ever want to play in that kind of atmosphere. I’d take less to play in a better franchise then more to lose lose lose
Failing to sign the Mesa brothers and now Gaston have made it near imperative for the O’s to recoup that lost value via trade.
Trade Dylan Bundy and Tim Beckham to San Diego for a nice little package. Maybe something like SS Jordy Barley, SP Jacob Nix, CF Travis Jankowski and C Luis Torrens?
Then trade Givens to the highest bidder.
Mancini should fetch something good as well.
Hit on these trades and allow the new regime to draft and develop effectively. That’s going to be the only way to get this organization back to respectability.
Bleacher, missing out on these international signings would’ve brought some positive press to the org. But who knows whether it would have brought good players? Time will tell.
In the meantime, this non-signing will not make or break them. They’ll be fine, but the road will be long and painful.
Time to contract!
Vanquish Orioles & Mets to baseball hell.
Never going to happen, and any talks of contraction should begin and end with that AAAA organization in Miami.
Barely seen mention of discussions around a new GM yet as well
Indians need to jettison more than Chisenhall. Play the kids, instead.
Does international pool space carry to next year? Or did the orioles blow their chance to hit big internationally this year? Idk how it works
They blew it!
Well they didn’t blow it at all. Though they signed four less heralded players after the failed signings, they are likely done spending on the international market. However, they can always save the money not spent and just simply spend it in other ways and other arenas, sometime down the road.
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Blocking balls is the only negative of Sanchez defense. He calls good games, and is one of the better pitch framers and throwers. Having all that and seeing him improve his blocking after his last DL stint give hope he can remain in the position for a few more years. I know it’s a SSS but it’s kind of sad that Sanchez had a better defensive PS than anyone other than Leon. And that dude is basically only still a player because of defense.
Yes, Sanchez’s defense only really lacks with those passed balls. He is above average in virtually every category. I have a feeling that a lot of those passed balls are coming from communication errors. If he can figure the passed balls problem he will once again be one of the better defending catchers in the league.
lmao this thread is amazing, Yankee fans really are delusional. Talk about making excuses for the guy!
Its fine, your team will continue to be irrelevant and not win anymore titles. 18 year olds have seen Boston win 3 or 4 in their lifetime and the Yanks only have 1 – what a farce to have to listen to Yanks fans talk about baseball, they barely ever win!
Hahahaha, how about we throw out a nice even number like 20 years, then they’d be tied at 4 each. How about the fact that Yankees haven’t had a losing record since the early 90s. The Sox have more rings but how many losing years did they have to get draft picks and get those rings? Or how about the fact that many Sox fans went their entire life without seeing a championship before 04. Maybe Yanks haven’t won it all since 09 but their certainly know what winning looks like.
*Sox have more rings recently
I didnt think identifying where the passed ball issue’s root cause can potentially be is making excuses for the guy. He had a bad 2018, sure. But pointing out the pros is not the same as making excuses for the guy. An example of an excuse (and a legitimate one too): He had an injury riddled season and injuries never help the stat line. Therefor he can be partially excused for some bad play since he was more than likely playing hurt at some point.
Sounds like wishful thinking. His year was less than impressive, and in fact cause for concern.
But u said in this same thread u expect a guy who has zero MLB production to rebound from an ankle injury and help with the Os rebuild. Sanchez has production in the bigs. A down year is not necessarily “cause for concern”.
Dude SO MUCH wishful thinking and delusion going on in Yankee fan-land when it comes to Sanchez. The HRs really clouded them on him, when he absolutely sucks at defense, Andujar does too. Yankees aren’t winning anything until they trade both.
As a Yankee fan, you always want then to field the best team possible. However, I’m dissapointed with some Yankee fans asking for Sanchez’ head. Granted, he had a horrible year on both sides of the game. Granted, at times, his hustle came into question. However, it was just one bad year. Even with that, he ranked 16th in WAR for catchers. In the last 3 years he ranks 4th overall in WAR, and that comes with just 1 full season and 2 half-seasons.
Sanchez has to drastically improve on his 2018 season and a return to above average hitting and passable defense would be ok to me. Analytics show he’s average to above average in other defensive aspects of catching other than passed balls so he’s not a complete disaster. I think he’s prideful. I think he wants his money. He deserves to be our starting catcher in 2019. Besides, what are the options? Romine had a good year but I think he’s better served as a back-up who will start 30-40 games a year.
” Even with that, he ranked 16th in WAR for catchers. ”
LMAO!!!!
My god, open your eyes – Sanchez stinks at catching and is a DH-only guy. “16th best C” is what last place teams have.
Hey, the longer the Yankees keep playing him, the less chance they have of getting their second title in 20 years lol
Totally agreed. He is a DH only type of guy in the future. It’s just a matter of time. Even his ability to throw guys out declined this past season.
Also, a lot of those WPs should have been scored passed balls.
Wow I guess you missed the obvious point I made.
3 points.
a) Sanchez had a horrible season in 2018. No one wants to see the same in 2019. However, the state of bad catching is such that even tho he had a horrible year he still ranked better than half the catchers in baseball.
b) There’s reason to hope it’s an aberration and that he can rebound off a horrible year. I mentioned that over his career (3 years) 2 of which were half seasons he still ranks 4th among all-catchers in the mlb, most of which played in more games. He ranked behing JT, Posey and I forgot who the 3rd guy was.
.
c) Who are the better options than Sanchez? Romine? Even with his passed balls he ranks average to above average defensively.
Think of Sanchez being a good to above average in every defensive aspect other than passed balls the same way we can look at a starting pitcher who walks 80 batters and throws a few wild pitches but when he can find his control is a lights out strike out machine. Yeah, at some point he’s got to turn the corner. However, if he were a 25 yo pitcher with 3 years in the league would you give up on him and send him to the bullpen or work with him and hope he can harness his stuff?
great hitting catcher with an average to slightly below average glove > over a good hitting DH all day every day. No contest.
He HAS to improve over 2019. This notion that he should be moved from C or traded is stupid evident by all the teams that have reached out to Cashman to see if he’s available.
Here we go with the sabr junk. Statcast suggests Sanchez should’ve had better results based on expected Batting average.
Classic sabr, suggesting a player that was terrible hit in bad luck. Looked at the list in the statcast link. Unsurprisingly, many players that actually hit well had lower xBA, suggesting they hit with more good luck. Lol
Sanchez deserved the standard batting average he ended up with. He had his moments here and there, but for the most part, he made weak contact or struck out swinging at pitches low and away.
In other words, after tearing up the league in 2016 – 17, the league adjusted and he now needs to re-adjust or he’ll have another poor season offensively.
As far as his defense, he is capable of being an excellent catcher, he’s just lazy. This has been his M.O. since he signed with the Yankees. He plays when he feels like it. Yanks probably won’t put up with his Jeckyll and Hyde act behind the plate if his offense doesn’t improve over this year’s production.
AMEN
As far as BABIP goes Sanchez was extremely unlucky and it happens from time to time. I think it is very likely that offensively Sanchez will not have a .198 babip next year and just by going back to career norms of somewhere near .280 will have a much better offensive season next year. You can call Sabr metrics junk but look at Mookie, whole not totally because of babip, one year 2017 he has a .268 babip and he has a down year. Next year 2018 he has .368 babip and he’s MVP there is luck involved in baseball and Sanchez was very unlucky last year.
Sanchez’s poor BABIP wasn’t the result of luck, It was a result of him being an atrocious runner mixed with his inability this year to take an outside pitch the opposite way. The poor running keeps him from beating out tough infield plays in the whole. His inability to hit to right means he tops a lot of outside pitches leading to routine ground balls to the right side. Unless he changes that approach, opposing pitches will continue eating up that outside corner and causing him to have a low BABIP.
His career babip is .280 and he has never been a good runner. Also his advanced metrics dint indicate he has grounded out any more then usual. He is a good candidate to easily hit far better next year then this year just as anyone could see that Betts was unlucky in 2017 and was a good bet to to exceed his 2017 in 2018 offensively.
You are ignoring the fact that the league has adjusted to his swing and now pitches him low and away. He has to readjust to them or he will continue to hit softly to the right side. Do you actually watch the games or only look at stats?
Also, Betts is a way more complete hitter (not to mention faster) than Sanchez
Talk about clueless, “chicks dig the long ball” I guess dudes too? All Sanchez has done is hit homers and been a terrible defensive C his ENTIRE CAREER.
Be nice to see Sanchez come in about 15 pounds lighter and really workout hard, if not the defensive situation will have to be addressed and quickly, can’t rely on the guys offense and then give up as many or more runs as he produced at the plate.
His size is meaningless, he was never good at C. He can hit ya some dingers but being that the Yankees have like 15 DH-only options they really need to cut him loose in a trade and target Realmuto, who Jeter will give them for nothing because he is still a Yankee and is colluding with them now as the GM of another team. Sigh.
Geez you’re so full of it. Jeter traded what they felt was a bad contract on the books to the very limited options that were available. The idea, that Jeter, a super competitive guy, would sign-on to the Marlins to help the Yanks is as absurd as it gets. He invested in the Marlins and I’m sure, as much as he loves being a Yankee legend, his greatest dream would be for the Marlins to one day beat the Yanks in 7 games of the WS with a walk home-run by a Marlins player.
The best move for the Yankees is to stay patient. Most of their success has come from the Yankees’ FO ability to stay patient. Trading Gary away would be a foolish decision based off a knee jerk reaction.
Just worry about SP and its a coin flip to whether or not you win a WS title.
It’s just the keyboard GMs/Non Yankee fans here that are dying for the Yankees to get rid of Gary for peanuts
The only problem with Sanchez defense is his lazy backhanding of balls other than that he is very good. Once he figures out not to do that and breaks out of that bad habit his defense will greatly improve. Every pitcher on the staff’s other than Tanaka era was better with Sanchez than Romine over the last couple years and he can control the run game
Easier said than done. Usually lazy players stay lazy until they’re set to become a free agent and want to get paid.
Sanchez missed a lot of catchable balls that never hit the dirt.
Gary Sanchez should drop 20 pounds. Would probably help his ball blocking ability.
Yes it would. He’s not as fit as he could be.
I gotta wonder if Chisenall would be better off to going back to third base with a team like the Cards or Pirates
Eeeeek!
My first 3 picks in fantasy this yr were correa, sanchez & schoop. Awful!
The Tribe should spend some money before their contending window closes. I would go hard after Harper and bring back Miller while also signing Britton after a down yr and move Salazar to a SU role with his nasty stuff. Edwin is going into his 3rd yr of a 4 yr deal and even by landing Harper, they will still have enough room to lock up Ramirez, Lindor and possibly Kluber/Carrasco.
1.Lindor SS
2.Harper RF
3.Ramirez 2B
4.Donaldson 3B
5.Alonso 1B
6.Edwin DH
7.Kipnis LF
8.Perez C
9.Allen/Naquin CF
Lindor and J-Ram only got two yrs left of team control, so they need to be extended. Again, signing Harper shouldn’t affect the extensions of both players if they upper payroll and really want a WS Chamoionship.Donaldspn on a one yr deal could work too, so he can establish his value back.
And than you turned the game off!
The Indians aren’t jumping into the top 5 payrolls when no one comes to their games, stop being delusional.
Belittle everyone else’s teams they root for, but it won’t change the fortunes of your sorry ass A’s!!! Commonwealth of Oakland denying yet another fictional stadium plan is what you can look forward to..Vegas Baby!
J-Ram under contract through 2021 with club options for 22 and 23. Higher priority to lockup Franky for the future.
Orioles had a extremely bad season and the trend continues with a bad off-season lol
“The Orioles came in second in the race for Cuban pitching prospect Sandy Gaston”
I guess Ricky Bobby had it right along. If you at first; you’re last.
Gary Sanchez comeback player of the year 2019 just wait.