At this time last year, the Yankees were pondering how to proceed at catcher after Gary Sanchez struggled badly and eventually lost playoff playing time to backup Kyle Higashioka.
In the end, the Yanks decided to tender Sanchez a contract, and now, as Sanchez enters his final year of arbitration before becoming a free agent, will the Yanks again bring the soon-to-be 29-year-old back for another go?
General manager Brian Cashman hinted on Thursday night that the Yanks will likely go that route again.
“As of right now, Gary Sanchez and Kyle Higashioka are our catchers unless we run into something that we feel can upgrade that and make it better,” Cashman told reporters before spending the night outside in Manhattan to raise awareness for youth homelessness. “We are obviously having conversations to see if there’s options. Catching is a very thin market. It was last year, and I can say it looks like it’s that way this year again. But it doesn’t preclude us from exploring potential options that exists out there. And if not, we’ll go back with what we have.”
The free agent market for catchers is indeed thin, with Yan Gomes, Martin Maldonado and Stephen Vogt, all more than 34 years of age, representing the free agent class. As for Sanchez, his defensive miscues were still prevalent, particularly later in the season, but he did improve his bat after a disastrous 2020. He hit .204 and was just around league average with a 99 OPS+, still far off from the hitter he was in 2016, 2017, and most of 2019, when he was arguably the best offensive catcher in the league.
“He worked his tail off. I thought his catching without a doubt got better, although in the very end he had some struggles that magnified,” Cashman said, via NJ.com. “It was almost like pick the scab and it made everybody remember what it was like in the past. But I think overall he was significantly better at the catching position last year than the prior years, so I’ve got to give him a lot of credit for the hard work and the dedication that he had towards trying to improve because he did improve.”
Sanchez showed flashes of his past self in the first half of last season, but he is moving farther away from the hitter he was when he first arrived in the majors. It looks less and less likely that Sanchez is New York’s long-term starting catcher, but as for next season, it looks like there aren’t many other options out there.
“We obviously have decisions to make as we move forward in terms of trade, tender, all that stuff,” Cashman said. “We’ll have to see how that all shakes out.”
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