Baseball America Scouting Report on Gary Sanchez

Baseball America has released a ton of free content this offseason and has been very good to the New York Yankees specifically. Baseball American has spoken well of many of the Yankees top prospects in their Top 20 Prospect rankings for every minor league affiliate and has now moved on to specific players with the first being the Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez.

HERE IS THE LINK for the FREE scouting report or see below.

Former Phillies scout Therron Brockish reprises his role for BA with weekly scouting reports from the Arizona Fall League. Brockish has more than 20 years of experience as a college coach and as an amateur scout. He served as an assistant coach at Wayne State, Ball State and Arizona Christian and as head coach at Iowa Western CC, and he worked for six years as an area scout with the Philadelphia Phillies, signing big leaguers Jason Donald, Tuffy Gosewisch and Lou Marson during that time.

The Arizona Fall League began its 2015 campaign with home runs flying, mirroring what’s happening in the major league postseason.

In Peoria, the Javelinas hosted the Surprise Saguaros. The first home run of the AFL season belonged to Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez, who belted a 420-foot shot to left field in the first inning to give the Saguaros a 3-0 lead.

The Saguaros held a 5-1 lead heading into the bottom of the eighth. After Royals reliever Kevin McCarthy retired the first hitter, Mike Yastrzemski (Orioles) hit a line drive that cleared the wall in right center. After a single and a strikeout, Nick Torres (Padres) hit a two-run homer to left center to make it 5-4.

A hit batter and a double by Phoenix-area native D.J. Peterson (Mariners) drove in the tying run before McCarthy was pulled. Milwaukee reliever Damien Magnifico was greeted by an RBI single from Gabriel Quintana (Padres) to score Peterson for a 6-5 lead, which held up in the ninth. A total of eight homers were hit in the two AFL afternoon games.

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Prospect Report

Gary Sanchez, c

Born: Dec. 2, 1992. Ht.:6-2. Wt.:230. B-T: R-R.

Tool	Grade
Hitting	45/50
Power	60
Fielding	50
Speed	30
Arm	60

Hitting
Future Grade: 45/50

Sanchez’s offense has been steady if not spectacular in the minors so far; he’s a career .274/.339/.459 hitter in 2,157 minor league at-bats. His swing is powerful and generates great bat speed. He will strike out but probably not as much as one would think for a middle of the order bat, as he’s struck out in 21 percent of his minor league plate appearances. He still has some young hitter tendencies to swing at breaking balls out of the strike zone, but as he matures, so will his discipline at the plate. He looks like a guy that will hit in the .260-.270 range. A club will have to live with 100-plus strikeouts for some of the power potential.

Power
Future Grade: 60
Power is a tricky tool to grade. There are really two components of power: raw power and power production (power that translates into home runs and extra-base hits). Sanchez shows 70 raw power in batting practice, launching balls far over the fence to all fields. He hit 18 homers in 2015 between Double-A and Triple-A in 400 plate appearances. His raw power combined with his tendency to swing and miss some will likely result in 20-25 homers at the major league level in a full season. There is a learning curve in hitting major league pitching and he could produce as many as 30 homers in his prime years. He is definitely a guy who could be a run-producer at the major league level.

Run
Future Grade: 30

When grading catching tools, running speed is the least important tool for the catching position. Sanchez grades out near the bottom of the scale in this category. He has shown some base-stealing instincts as evidenced by his 30 stolen bases in six minor league seasons, but that won’t be a factor in whether or not he becomes a big league regular.

Defense
Future Grade: 50

Managers want a catcher who is solid defensively and can handle the pitching staff. Receiving and blocking move to the top of the list when grading catchers’ fielding tools. Sanchez is large physically by catching standards and provides a big target for pitchers to throw to. He has soft hands and showed good blocking skills. He was charged with one passed ball on Tuesday but it appeared to be caused by being crossed up by a new pitcher with a runner at second base. He had just two passed balls in 83 regular-season games in 2015 after yielding 10 in 83 games in ’14.

Arm Strength
Future Grade: 60

Although he had no stolen base attempts against him today, Sanchez flashed a 60 arm in between innings. He has good carry on his throws combined with a quick release. His pop times ranged from 1.9-2.0 range. He has had some success throwing out would-be base-stealers in the minors so far, throwing out 36 percent of opposing baserunners this season.

At 22 years old with six minor league seasons under his belt, Sanchez is on the 40-man roster and made his big league debut in September, going 0-for-2 as a pinch-hitter. The Yankees will have some important decisions to make regarding Sanchez, who could spend another year at Triple-A considering Brian McCann is signed through 2018 and John Ryan Murphy has established himself as a solid, low-cost backup. Sanchez may have to keep biding his time to become a regular in New York, but he also could present himself as a strong trade chip in the AFL.