The New York Mets have brought in some outside help at the catcher position, and it's a familiar face for Big Apple baseball fans. Former Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez has switched sides.
It's been a rough go for Gary Sanchez since he left New York.
The two-time All-Star spent time with the Minnesota Twins and San Francisco Giants. In Minneapolis, he slashed just .205/.282/.377 in 128 games with moderate power — he hit 16 home runs in that time.
However, that wasn't enough for the Twins to keep him around, which is why Sanchez ended up in San Francisco on a minor-league deal. Sanchez wasn't able to advance to the major leagues, and instead requested his release. He's now in the same predicament with the Mets, who do have some options available to him should he succeed at the lower levels.
New York Mets sign former Yankee Gary Sanchez
New York had to evaluate outside options given their current bench consists of the likes of Mark Canha, Eduardo Escobar and more. Their depth has been tested, and not in a good way — the Mets are 17-18. For a team with such high expectations, the start to the Mets season can only be described as an abject failure. As talented as Sanchez once was, signing him to a minor-league contract won't solve that alone.
Thomas Carannante of Yanks Go Yard laid out Sanchez's struggles since leaving the Yankees, and it's not pretty:
"Sánchez has been decidedly below-average since 2018, if we're to judge those seasons cumulatively. He just came off a campaign in which he OPS'ed .659 and OPS+'ed 88 across 128 games with the Twins, mostly logging reps at DH. He had a 28.9% strikeout rate and just an 8.5% walk rate. There's a reason he didn't get a major league deal before 2023."
It'll be a long road to the majors for Sanchez, who is primarily a designated hitter at this point in his career. He won't be battling Francisco Alvarez and Tomas Nido for reps at catcher barring the unforeseen.
