It's no secret that Yankees backstop Gary Sánchez struggled throughout the shortened 2020 season. He saw his .841 OPS from his 2019 All-Star campaign plummet to .618. His strikeout percentage of 36.1% was sixth among all batters with at least 150 plate appearances. Of 32 catchers who registered 100 plate appearances in 2020, Sanchez's fWAR of -0.1 ranks at No. 29.
So, again, it's not hard to see that he simply was not good. But why the regression? Could it have been because of an unlucky streak of strong opposing pitching, where Sanchez just wasn't getting any good pitches to hit?
That's not it. According to Jomboy, the investigative mind who helped to uncover the Astros sign-stealing scandal with his video analysis, Sánchez had at least 55 pitches that were objectively good pitches to hit. Meatballs, some might call them. How did he fare?
Though a "meatball" has varying definitions, Jomboy chose to use pitches in the "middle middle" of the zone, sitting squarely where the barrel should connect with the ball as the pitch crosses the plate. They could be 102-mph fastballs or 65-mph looping curveballs, so there's definitely some variability there, but the placement of the pitch remains the same.
Regardless of what type of pitch it was, though, the term "meatball" means that Sánchez should probably have found some more success on these. They're labeled that way for a reason — big, juicy pitches that are not supposed to result in zero hits after 55 occurrences.
But that's what happened to Sánchez, who will certainly draw some looks during the MLB offseason. It remains to be seen whether or not the Yankees will tender a contract to their former All-Star catcher, but their decision will certainly need to be made after evaluating which Sánchez is the real Sánchez: the home run slugger or the seemingly automatic strikeout.
WFAN's Sweeny Murti dove into the interesting case that awaits the Yankees and some of the potential outcomes.
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