The Giants are not adding catcher Gary Sánchez to their roster and he is exercising the opt-out in his contract, per Andrew Baggarly and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.
Sánchez, 30, became a free agent for the first time this winter but lingered on the open market all the way through the end of March. At that point, he signed a minor league deal with the Giants which came with a $4MM salary if selected and an opt-out on May 1 if he wasn’t. Sánchez joined the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats for the past month but has hit just .164/.319/.182 in his 69 plate appearances there.
The Giants aren’t exactly loaded at catcher, as they’ve lost Roberto Pérez to season-ending shoulder surgery. That’s left them with Blake Sabol and Joey Bart as the only backstops on the 40-man roster, the latter of whom has been dealing with a groin injury of late. Sabol is performing well on the year but is a Rule 5 pick who has just 21 games of major league experience under his belt so far.
They could probably use some extra help behind the plate but it’s fairly understandable that they didn’t want to pay that notable salary to Sánchez, given his struggles thus far this year and in past seasons as well. Though he once seemed like the top offensive catcher in the league, he’s hit just .195/.287/.394 since the end of the 2019 season, striking out in 29.5% of his plate appearances.
That being said, it seems likely Sánchez will find opportunities elsewhere, perhaps even a major league deal but certainly another minor league deal in a worst-case scenario. There are plenty of clubs around the league that are dealing with catcher injuries who would likely take a shot on him. Though he hasn’t been considered a strong defender in his career, he showed positive developments in that department last year. Though his offense hasn’t been as strong in recent years, he can still add some power from the position. In that 2020-2022 stretch when he wasn’t hitting so well, he still launched 49 home runs in three years, one of them being only 60 games long.
As much as I loathe him, we should probably add him.
Did you see his stats while in AAA?
No. That’s far worse than I though they’d be.
Pass.
Halos – Are we talking about the same guy who hit 20 homeruns in his first 51 ML games?
Somewhere Suzyn Waldman is crying.
Goodness gracious
Goodness gracious!
Baseball is 90% mental and the other half is physical. Something in Sanchez’s head is doing screwy, can’t do, confidence take downs. He has hitting talent to the moon, but wow, wow, yippies can even scare away gloves and bats. He is proof!
So 180%, right? You must be a math teacher
That’s an old Yogi Betts quote.
he was pretty terrible – I imagine his defense was passable but offensively with the rivercats in a hitter friendly environment he hit under .200 and showed almost no power
Only one XBH in PCL is pretty bad.
You would promote a guy hitting .164 with 0 HRs in 70 ABs
He has NOT given any justification that he belongs in MLB let alone AAA
Yeah, I should’ve looked before I posted.
Well, at least he doesn’t need Tommy John surgery
He plays like he had Elton John surgery.
Pshh, then he would have been a rocket man, which he clearly isn’t.
He eats like he had Jimmy Johns surgery.
Nothing else can be said. We are done here.
Well, where to now?
Home…Seriously, I don’t understand what happened to him. His power I thought was a natural for Fenway and his arm I actually compared it to Johnny Bench. I always say use your eyes well by any measure, he simply lost it if he really ever had it. He’s still worth a flyer in my view but he needs to understand he needs to forget his past success and get hungry all over again. If he can truly muster a hunger to succeed like he probably had breaking in, he’s got a chance. Not much of one but far better stories have been written so why not him too?
Yankees fans said he made a lot of terrible low baseball IQ decisions on defense. The 4 million if you promote me clause of this contract was a dumb move. Conclusion, maybe he’s all confidence but no intelligence? A bad combo when the raw talent starts to age.
@case I don’t think you understood that contract exactly. He wasn’t betting on himself there, he couldn’t get a major league deal anywhere. Those are the kinds of you deals you sign in those situations. Has nothing to do with Sanchez’s intelligence.
@case The bar is now higher to be a MLB catcher. Gerritt Cole didn’t want to pitch to him shortly after he signed with the Yankees which was pretty telling. Sanchez never struck me as a good communicator from the countless interviews I’ve seen from him.
Yes, but it’s not particularly common to have a clause where if you’re promoted the salary is automatically 4 million, particularly when there are major questions about your ability to produce at the major league level anymore.
People have always said that Sanchez was an offense first catcher and future DH. I’m still dubious about the value of framing, but I know a lot of established ace type pitchers prefer a catcher that can consistently block a ball in the dirt when they’re going for that 1-2 wipe out breaking pitch.
@case $4MM is on the high-side. Typically, it’s between $1MM and $2.5MM which are not rare.
Johnny Bench’s advice to young catchers is to ‘catch every ball’. I cannot think of a guy further away from that than Fatchez
Second tier Mexican league team material
The feeling was mutual
There’s a reason the Yankee dropped him. It is a warning sign.
Right. It’s because they wanted a shortstop.
No. It’s passed balls… and trotting after them like a fat old golfer.
#freeGary
I think he will need some kind of salary….not free
He is free already
The problem is, no one wants him at even that price
Harris in Detroit will sign him but as a relief pitcher and then try to pass him through the waiver wire to the minors at which point Tampa Bay (my 2nd favorite team) will claim him and he will develop into an all star closer
You would have to be really desperate to add him to the roster.
He is done, never a good catcher and now he can’t hit and people want to call him up to the majors. Are you serious ??
Giants aren’t going to the post-season this year. MadBum can hit better than Sanchez and neither can pitch or catch.
NEXT GARY SANCHEZ HEADLINE:
Sanchez to sign on with Atlantic League Team !!
Future Lexington Counter Clock Gary Sanchez!
Could join Didi in the Mexican League
No reason to add Sanchez when his stats are that rough. .164/.319/.182 OPS .501 isn’t going to get you added to a lot of big league rosters. He was walking quite a bit 15.9%, but a 27.5% K rate more than offsets that, too.
That said, Sanchez did get a late start on the season and I’m sure he’ll be looking for another MiLB contract with an opt out in the hopes it’s just rust holding him back (doesn’t seem like it).
Forever River Cat?
His claws are down…
Long Island Ducks….. here comes the Kraken…
Ha ha. Maybe he could go to Tokyo and join the moviemaking division, the Kraken versus Godzilla.
The bottom line is, nobody wants him. His star has really sunk to the basement and beyond. Perfect example of a guy who could not take advantage of his opportunities or his talent.
Best he can expect is another AAA deal, but maybe back with Scranton and the Yankees or even Syracuse and the Mets. It’s a shame Sanchez is a catcher who doesn’t catch well. But every at bat with Higoshioka or Nido is an out nearly 9 out of 10 times. They can catch better, though
Yankee fans wanted Sanchez gone because he commits far too many passed balls and strikes out too often. It would be a shock if he gets a minor league contract at Scranton.
You’re right, and it’s not happening. In fact the excepted the abysmal donaldson deal, import in order to read themselves of Sanchez his contract. well that’s their own fault, and yet another one of Cashmans blunders, since he did not have to sign sanchez to begin with for the final year. Or pick up is option to be exact. So I doubt they will revisit that whole debacle again even if it’s for very little money.
Can’t hit or catch so bye
He keeps getting worse. His AAA numbers were abysmal, although it’s also a SSS.
Am sure there is a BEER softball league in need of his services
I truly wonder what happened to him. You look at his strengths and weaknesses when he debuted and even in his first full season and you’d think he’d at least still have 20+ HR power. You look at his early defensive metrics and he wasn’t atrocious. He was bad, but he wasn’t absolutely worthless.
I think he’s out of baseball. I think he’s done. I think it’s a combination of the holes in his game permanently exposed across every level of professional baseball thanks to video that managers and pitchers can look at, to go along with the yips and to go along with him leaning into the wrong elements of his approach and drifting away from the parts of his stance, his swing, etc. that worked.
I don’t think the power is “gone” in the sense that if he made good contact he couldn’t hit home runs like he seemed like he would his first couple of seasons.
I think the power is gone in the sense that he doesn’t know how to make good contact.
I dunno… I think he’s out of baseball. I don’t think he’s worth it for anybody else to pick up- though someone might, but I think the results will be the same everywhere he goes.
I hope he saved his money.
Good grief the way baseballs are flying he should be close to his 2019 numbers. Detroit should pick him up, because Hasse has not jacked one out yet. Detroit’s got room to take a chance with him. Detroit will have a opening at D.H. next year, so why not ?
Damn that’s 100 points higher then austin Barnes.
Next stop, Salt Lake City?
Maybe he should reinvent himself overseas. Nothing to lose.
When they figured him out, they REALLY figured him out.
The Cubs DFAd Luis Torrens the other day. He would probably work out better than Sanchez.
I wonder if the Giants promoting Patrick Bailey to AAA, was a message to Sanchez that he’d be better off looking elsewhere. Certainly they don’t want Bailey sitting on the bench playing back-up behind Sanchez.
Braves will sign him he’ll and he’ll end up hitting 20 bombs after the All-Star break.
He’s the worst defensive catcher I’ve ever seen in an MLB uniform.
Quite a shame, because he has a cannon hanging from his right shoulder…
He kept a job because he could rip a pitch every now & then.
But now, he’s not hitting either…
Therefore, he brings no value to a roster.
Quite true. Yankees always hoped he would figure it out, but he never did the League figured him out and he has consistently gotten worse over the years. Whatever value he once had is obviously gone.
Rumor always had it that ex-catcher and WS champ Gerardi was on Sanchez’ case to be better defensively…and it cost Gerardi his job.
Joe G was always ripping on Sanchez but he got fired bc he lost the clubhouse. With Boone, he’s partially a front office puppet in the dugout but he handles the press much better than his predecessor and it’s kind of a big deal in NYC.
Partially? he does handle the media fairly well with his absurd spins, but otherwise a very poor excuse for manager. note that in his tenure despite among the highest payrolls in baseball consistently the Yankees have got nowhere near a World Series appearance even
Joe’s an intense guy. His act definitely has a half-life.
I’ll gladly take Yan Gomes, Tucker Barnhardt and now Miguel Amaya for the Cubs. Hopefully Anaya does well enough to stay on the team the rest of the season. They had 3 catchers on the 26 man anyway from the start of the year.
Next stop the Guadalajara Jumping Beans
Dumb move to even sign him. Especially considering we already have a future All Star catcher, in Joey Bart