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.