This has been a week of small milestones for Major League
Baseball and for the New York Yankees specifically. The deadline to tender
players a contract or not passed with a flurry of minor signings and trades
while 43 players joined the free agency market while the Yankees sat back and
lit some candles on a birthday cake. New York wished Gary Sanchez a very happy
23rd birthday this week while a flurry of back up catchers were
being scooped up in free agency and acquired via trade. The fact that the
Yankees were content to stay away, at least at the time of this writing, from
the backup catcher suggest only one thing.
Gary Sanchez is going to be the Yankees backup catcher on
Opening Day 2016. Many speculated, beat writers specifically, that Sanchez
would begin the season in Triple-A after spending just 35 games with the
Scranton RailRiders in 2015 but at least right now that doesn’t seem to be the
case. Sanchez got an extended look in the Arizona Fall League as he faced off
against some of the premier talent across the league and showcased his power
and talents all the way through the AFL Stars Game. It seems like the Yankees
and Brian Cashman specifically have seen enough to hand the reigns over to
Sanchez after trading John Ryan Murphy earlier this offseason.
I love the idea of having Sanchez on the bench. He is a
right-handed bat with a ton of power at just 23-years old. Sure his development
may be slowed a bit as the backup catcher, Murphy didn’t play all that much in
2015, but New York can move him around if need be. The Yankees absolutely
cannot played Alex Rodriguez 150+ games next season, even as a DH, and Sanchez
can play a huge role in that department filling in for A Rod while still giving
the team some right-handed pop in the lineup. The lineup against left-handed
pitching would be better as well with Sanchez, in my opinion anyway, as a
significant upgrade over Murphy at least offensively.
Maybe in a pinch Sanchez could learn first base as well. You
never know. All we know right now is all signs point to Sanchez as the backup
catcher for Brian McCann next season.
Based on this, do you send down Greg bird? Benefit is Sanchez batting righty.
ReplyDeleteA backup catcher was needed, but now Greg birds at bats (if the intent was keeping him as DH/1B) just significantly dropped, if we want to give Sanchez more time.
Bird was going down with or without Gary Sanchez on the roster. He's basically a 1B or DH only and the Yankees have two roster clogging guys in both positions.
DeleteI think that brings up a conundrum, what to do with Bird. Bird hits about 40 points lower VS lefties but with hard work that number can improve.
ReplyDeleteCashman already answered that, he starts the season in Triple-A. No room on this roster for a 1B backup only unfortunately.
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