The New York Yankees haven’t been able to find a player who can provide them with a true balance of offense and defense to occupy the catcher, so manager Aaron Boone is in a predicament when it comes to choosing his catcher for the foreseeable future.
An old saying is that no one knows what they have until they lose it. For years, New York Yankees had one of the most reliable and secure receivers of the Major leagues Jorge PosadaThe Puerto Rican’s final season was in 2011 and since then the team has not been able to have a figure behind the plate who consistently represents safety in all aspects from defense to offense.
In 2015 he reached the MLB the Dominican Gary Sanchez, which many immediately saw as the Puerto Rican’s successor. The recipient’s impact was practically automatic and ranked second in the vote of Rookie of the year in 2016 (season in which he was eligible for the award); everyone believed that Yankees they had their catcher of the future.
2017 further cemented the belief that the player would be the one who would be indisputably responsible for the capture for years to come, but year after year, the Dominican’s defense deteriorated and similarly presented injuries. Moreover, it is offensive of Sánchez began to decline, a trend that continued into the shortened 2020 season, the recipient’s worst year in the Major leagues
Sánchez He has a .265 batting average, accompanied by a .471 on-base percentage (OBP) and a .502 slugging percentage (SLG), good for an .823 OPS. However, he has only been able to play a hundred games in two seasons (2017 and 2019) due to the accumulation of injuries.
In 2020, Sánchez was banked by two other recipients, Kyle Higashioka Y Erik Kratz, both are better defensive alternatives than the Dominican. Even, Higashioka became the personal recipient for it Gerrit Cole, given the poor performance of the spin bait when Sánchez it was on the plate. Unfortunately, this catcher has an average batting average of .196, along with an OPS of .649.
This created friction between the team’s management and the player, who was interviewed before ESPN said he didn’t know the reasons that led the team to put him on the bench, which got a strong response from Brian Cashman, indicating that it shouldn’t be surprising that a player’s poor performance is leading the team places him on the couch.
For 2021, the Yankees have listed only Sánchez and Higashioka as recipients for the time being. One implies offensive power, the other defense, but neither is a catcher that can provide stability to either side of the ball.
If the trend continues, catching the Yankees games is a big deal and in the worst case scenario it could cost them the division or even qualifying for the postseason (for the first time since 2008).