It’s been a long and winding road for Gary Sánchez. He now finds himself back in the AL East.
Gary Sánchez burst onto the baseball scene in 2016 with an impressive rookie season with the Yankees in which he hit 20 home runs in just 53 games. It earned him second place in Rookie of the Year voting and high expectations for his career. He followed through in 2017 with 33 home runs, a silver slugger as a catcher, and his first All-Star appearance.
Those first two seasons were surely what the Yankees had imagined when they gave him a $3 million signing bonus as a 16-year-old out of the Dominican Republic. He started off in the minors with a bang but his performance had stagnated some before he made the majors. That made his early performance a bit surprising, but he had the pedigree. When he and Aaron Judge joined the Yankees around the same time, it seemed like they’d be a one-two punch making the Orioles miserable for years to come.
In fact, if you remember Sánchez being even better than his stats indicate, that’s because he destroyed the Orioles. He hit four home runs against them in 10 games in 2017 and has 22 homers off of Orioles’ pitchers in his career, his most against any single team.
But the good times did not last for Sánchez. Things went south after that fantastic 2017 season. He struggled with injuries and couldn’t keep up his prodigious offensive numbers. There had always been questions about his defense, and when his offense fell off things went south. As is typical in New York, the fans and media turned on him. There were complaints about his work ethic, his attitude, you name it. How much of that was true? It’s always impossible to say, of course. But New York isn’t exactly a nurturing market for professional athletes.
Sánchez stayed with the Yankees through 2021 and finished his career with them with 138 home runs in 538 games. In spring training 2022, Sánchez was traded to the Minnesota Twins for Josh Donaldson and others. He spent all of 2022 with the Twins and while his offense has never come back around, he showed marked improvement on defense in defensive runs saved, framing, and blocking. It led to an fWAR of 1.4 despite his batting line of .205/.282/.377.
Sánchez reached free agency after his season with the Twins and 2023 was a tumultuous year for the catcher. The San Francisco Giants signed him to a minor-league deal with an opt-out. He took that opt-out on May 2 when he hadn’t made the major-league team.
The Mets took a chance on him after his release, but that lasted just about a week before he was DFA’d. The Padres claimed him on waivers on May 29, kicking off a very nice second half of the season. Sánchez stepped into the catcher role for the Padres and hit 19 home runs in 72 games. His framing and DRS numbers remained at their improved level, and he became Blake Snell’s personal catcher as Snell turned his season around.
Sánchez leveraged his Padres’ performance into a one-year contract with the Brewers that came with a mutual option. He backed up William Contreras at catcher and put in time as the designated hitter.
Sánchez’s power dropped off in his 89 games played. He hit just 11 home runs with a .171 ISO, the lowest of his career. His 0.3 fWAR was also the lowest of his career excluding 2020. The Brewers declined his option, but he more than made up for it when the Orioles inked him to a one-year, $8.5 million contract in December.
What can the Orioles expect of Sánchez this year? He’ll operate as the backup to primary catcher Adley Rutschman, and if the team manages Rutschman’s workload similarly this year to next, we’ll be seeing plenty of Sánchez. He has a strong throwing arm and, as mentioned, his defense has seen improvement in the past few seasons. He should do fine in the role.
What kind of offense he can provide is more of a mystery. He has more pop in his bat than many backups, but he hasn’t been consistent with it. He is a stronger hitter against left-handed pitching so he may see more time when it’s a lefty starter. (Rutschman is also better against lefties).
Gary Sánchez turned 32 years old in December and he has just over eight years of service time across 10 major-league seasons. He has gone from top prospect to hyped rookie to maligned underachiever. He has been signed, traded, released, and claimed on waivers. He’s seen free agency twice. There isn’t a lot of pressure on the back up catcher, and maybe that will serve him well. He’s young enough and talented enough to have another good season in the tank. Let’s hope we see that in 2025.