Maverick Handley, who filled in as the backup catcher while Sánchez was on the IL, is headed back to Norfolk.
Gary Sánchez is back on the Orioles. The team activated their $8.5 million backup catcher off the injured list on Saturday afternoon ahead of the day’s game against the Angels. In the expected corresponding move, catcher Maverick Handley, who filled in during Sánchez’s absence, was optioned to Triple-A Norfolk.
Sánchez has not appeared in a game for the Orioles since April 27. He’s been on the injured list due to inflammation in his right wrist for more than a month. Though the O’s have rushed some injured players back from the IL this year without lengthy rehab assignments, they were patient with Sánchez. His first rehab game was June 4 and he’s only being activated today.
Before going on the injured list, Sánchez had not done much to justify the contract that Mike Elias gave him over the offseason. That’s an understatement. Sánchez had performed in such a way that Elias looked like an idiot for making that signing. At the time of his injury, Sánchez was batting .100/.200/.100 over a small 35 plate appearance sample size. Notably, despite having been signed in part to help against left-handed pitching, he was hitless in 16 at-bats against lefties.
The rehab assignment with Norfolk has gone well for Sánchez, who hit three home runs while batting .367 over seven games with the Tides. Obviously, it’s easier to hit Triple-A pitching than major league pitching, but hopefully that is a sign that he will be able to do better in MLB with whatever wrist issue having been resolved.
During Sánchez’s absence, the constantly smiling Maverick Handley won himself some fans with his general attitude and with some specific defensive traits that particularly impressed Charlie Morton. The 41-year-old has had Handley as his personal catcher and pitched a number of good games when throwing to Handley. Everybody loves the backup to the backup catcher. It’s easy to fill one’s head with imagined and maybe even real intangibles that such a player could or does possess.
The problem for Handley is that he needs some more tangibles to keep him around for the intangibles. Batting at a .075/.136/.075 clip just isn’t going to cut it. It’s true that Sánchez wasn’t hitting either, but based on his recent career track record, we can expect Sánchez to hit better than he had been. Handley wasn’t throwing out runners either, going 0-13 in chances to catch someone stealing.
The Orioles may reach a point where they ought to view Sánchez as a sunk cost and not keep playing him. We’re not there yet. If Sánchez isn’t looking like what they expected once we get past the trade deadline, I’d hope the O’s would pull the trigger in moving on from what would at that point be a clear mistake. I also hope Sánchez is able to do some things between now and then to not make this look like a busted signing.