The New York Yankees have failed to find a player who can give them a true balance between offense and defense to occupy the catcher, so manager Aaron Boone is in a difficult situation when it comes to choosing his catcher for the immediate future. .
An old saying is that no one knows what he has until he loses it. For years, New York Yankees had one of the safest and safest receivers in Ligi mari, Jorge Posada. The Puerto Rican’s last season was in 2011 and since then, the team has failed to have a figure behind the board that represents security in all aspects, from defense to offense, in a consistent manner.
In 2015 it reached MLB Dominican Gary Sanchez, which many immediately saw as Puerto Rico’s successor. The impact of the receiver was practically automatic, being on the second place in the vote Rookie of the Year in 2016 (season in which he was eligible for the award); everyone thought that Yankees they had the catcher of the future.
2017 further strengthened the belief that the player will be the one who in the next few years will be indisputably responsible for the catch, but year after year, the Dominican’s defense deteriorated and, in the same way, injuries were presented. In addition, the offensive Sanchez began to decline, a trend that continued until the shortening of the 2020 season, the worst year of the receiver in Ligi mari.
Sanchez It has a .265 beat average, accompanied by a .471 base percentage (OBP) and a .502 slugging percentage (SLG), good for a .823 OPS. However, he managed to play only one hundred games in two seasons (2017 and 2019) due to the accumulation of injuries.
In 2020, Sanchez was placed by two other receivers, Kyle Higashioka Yes Erik Kratz, both being better defensive alternatives than the Dominicans. Even, Higashioka became the personal recipient for Gerrit Cole, given the poor performance of the rotation axis when Sanchez it was on the plate. Unfortunately, this catcher has a career career average of .196, along with an OPS of .649.
This brought friction between the team leadership and the player, who in an interview for ESPN said he did not know the reasons that led the team to put him on the bench, which received a strong response from Brian Cashman, in which he indicated that it should come as no surprise that a player’s poor performance leads the team to place it on the bench.
For 2021, the Yankees have only Sánchez and Higashioka listed as receivers, for now. One involves offensive power, the other defense, but neither of them can provide stability to both sides of the ball.
If the trend continues, it’s a big issue that the catch costs the Yankees games and, at worst, could cost them the division or even qualify for the postseason (for the first time since 2008).