How the once-mighty have fallen. Sanchez never could stop trying to hit every pitch 500 ft.

They should stick him at first base, and let him try.

How the once-mighty have fallen. Sanchez never could stop trying to hit every pitch 500 ft.

Yeah, that always differentiated him from, like, almost every other hitter in the major leagues.

(I'm really unsure what you mean--seriously, that isn't what every hitter does now?)

A 252 BABIP is what "kills" Sanchez (he still has a 109 career OPS+, not so much the last few years). The K rate's not good but it's hardly horrible by today's standards and the walk rate is good. The HR% is very good, the HR/FB at the top of the charts. Give him a league average BABIP and he'd be about a 250 career hitter, add 45 points to his OPS and about 10-12 points to his OPS+. But seems unlikley he'll turn into a LD machine at this point.

that isn't what every hitter does now?

C'mon now, some of the little guys are only trying to hit it 410 feet. And there's Steven Kwan who I'm not sure actually exists. (Last year Kwan's average EV was 84.7; deGrom's career is 83.1.)

Hope he makes it back. Always loved TG. See you at Machu Picchu.

Cards should have signed him to upgrade from Knizner

Well; if he can catch at all. he is an upgrade from Joey Bart

The Giants played Wade and Davis at first on Opening Day. There's no chance that Sanchez could generate less power on a team utterly starved for power.

Well, yeah. Anything would be better than a retired relief pitcher at first.

Sanchez was adequate behind the plate last year for the Twins. I'm surprised it took this long for him to find a team.

Sanchez was adequate behind the plate last year for the Twins. I'm surprised it took this long for him to find a team.

Sanchez was never really good with the Yankees, but I don't think he was ever as bad as his reputation either. The Yankees spent a lot of time and energy fixing him, but he seemed like a guy who could only really focus on one thing at a time - if they wanted him to work on pitch framing, his skill at blocking pitches went down (and vice versa)...and at the same time, whether related or not, the bat was heading south. If the Yankees had just let him catch, they had a chance at a below average defense catcher with a plus bat (which they loved with Jorge Posada)...alternately, if the glove just wasn't up to the standards they'd accept with new data on pitch framing coming online, just letting him focus on hitting as a DH/1B would've been the best move.

How the once-mighty have fallen. Sanchez never could stop trying to hit every pitch 500 ft.

Yeah, that always differentiated him from, like, almost every other hitter in the major leagues.

Maybe if Sanchez had been better in other parts of his game, he'd still be in the Majors. But even free swingers can learn how to adjust their swings with a two strike count, and Sanchez seldom did.

His first two months when he came up at the end of 2016 were so good** that they likely had two effects: It raised the fans' expectations way too high; and it convinced Sanchez that he could keep hitting enough home runs to negate the strikeouts. His steadily declining numbers (both OPS+ and WAR) over the years show the folly of that assumption.

** In 53 games: 20 HR, a 1.032 OPS+, and 3.0 WAR. Behind the plate, he even had a 41% CS average and drew praise for his unusually strong arm. During those same two months Aaron Judge was posting a strikeout rate of 50% and looking more like a poor imitation of Dave Kingman than the monster force he is today.

To me, Sanchez’s problem wasn’t so much swinging too hard, but poor pitch selection. Breaking balls well outside the zone seemed to do him in. He threw well, and IIRC got good marks for pitch framing, but for a time with the Yankees had great difficulty receiving the ball - way too many passed balls & wild pitches. I gather that his defense wasn’t a problem with the Twins, just his bat. Given how well he hit when first called up, one would think a good hitting coach could get him straightened out again, but it doesn’t always work out that way. Still, he seems worth the risk of a minor league deal.

it convinced Sanchez that he could keep hitting enough home runs to negate the strikeouts.

No Andy, that's not it. Never has been. He does hit enough HR to negate the strikeouts which, let me repeat, are not extreme in today's game

First, even over the last 4 years, Sanchez has a 99 OPS+. That's good for a C.

Second, let's make the most absurd comparison possible ... Mike Trout vs Gary Sanchez in career stats:

HR% .. 5.7 5.8
K% .. 22.0 26.2
HR/FB 16.1 18.9
G/F . 0.57 0.68
EV .. 91.8 91.2
BABIP 346 252

Now the K-rate difference was always going to mean that Sanchez wouldn't hit as well as MIKE TROUT but it's the BABIP difference that "kills" him. If Sanchez had Trout's (very, very, very high) BABIP, he'd be a 285 hitter (add 60 points) and somewhere around a 135-140 OPS+.

For a C, Sanchez has had only one disastrous "year" with the bat -- 2020. In that year, his K% did balloon to 36% so it was gonna be a bad year no matter what. But what crushed him was a 159 BABIP -- that's pretty much unheard of. His other "bad" NYY year was an 89 OPS+ with a 197 BABIP. Last year he had an 89 OPS+ again but that was a year where some other stuff fell apart -- the BABIP was at least his career average but the HR% dropped to 3.4 and the BB rate dropped a bit too. Maybe that's the beginning of the end.

Sanchez has enough PA we can't write that BABIP off to bad luck. He clearly doesn't hit enough LDs -- strangely, plenty of GBs (which don't help given his speed) and too many pop-ups. He's not selling out for launch angle to the extent of a Gallo (or even a Trout) -- Gallo hits very few GBs and a below-average # of LDs and a ton of pop-ups -- he's somehow generating a reasonable amount of negative launch angles and big positive launch angles and not enough in between.

The Giants played Wade and Davis at first on Opening Day.

I hope that works. Would be one of the more improbable comebacks in history. Up there with Smoky Joe Wood’s second act. He was an awesome closer, can’t pitch any more but I respect his effort to stay in the game.

I gather that his defense wasn’t a problem with the Twins, just his bat.

He was below average at fielding but he hit enough for a catcher. He should have an MLB roster spot.

Walt,

What do you think explains Sanchez's low BABIP? If it's not overswinging and turning over weak ground balls on outside pitches rather than trying to drive them to the opposite field, then what is it? Just bad luck? His approach to hitting would be fine---if he produced like he did in 2017 or 2019. But that was a baseball lifetime ago, and now he's just another poor defensive catcher with declining offensive skills.

If you want to argue that Sanchez's 99 OPS+ over the past 4 years is "good for a C", then you also have to consider his injury proneness, his defensive weakness, and his 1.9 WAR / 650 PA over that stretch. Replacing him with Trevino was one of Cashman's better moves last year.

sanchez's defensive #s improved tremendously with minnesota - even with some regression, i'd be comfortable with him as a catcher on my team. (not thrilled! but comfortable)
replacing him with trevino was also a big upgrade on what sanchez was doing so - win win there.

his 1.9 WAR / 650 PA over that stretch

That should be worth $6-8M a season.

My understanding (which is second hand, but from a reasonably trustworthy source) is that Gary Sanchez is very unintelligent: like, brains is the sixth tool, but you don't need to be a genius to succeed, just be smarter than a pretty low baseline, and Sanchez isn't over that baseline and it's ruined his career.

Fun fact: "The Sanchize" finished second in the 2016 AL ROY voting (to Michael Fulmer, who has since vanished off the face of the earth) despite having only 201 AB.

fwiw,
Fulmer got 6 outs today for the save for the Cubs, who seem to have the dreaded (if you play fantasy baseball) "Closer by Committee" thing going.