The New York Yankees surely miss the Gary Sanchez of a couple of seasons ago. That batter could comfortably put at least a 110 wRC+ and be a threat to hit a home run every time he stepped on the batters’ box. The latter part of the statement remains true, but Sanchez, who slumped all the way to a .147/.253/.365 line in 2020, finished with a disappointing 69 wRC+.
Yes, the sample size is small, but the offensive slump, inability to make consistent contact, and his suspect job blocking balls in the dirt and framing, resulted in the New York Yankees giving nearly all of the postseason starts to backup Kyle Higashioka.
After the season ended, the Yankees said that they will at least listen to offers on Sanchez. But does he have any trade value left? Craig Edwards, an analyst at Fangraphs, seems to think that is no longer the case.
The Yankees miss his contributions
FanGraphs doesn’t expect Sanchez to return to form. Here’s why:
“The swing-and-miss issues on sliders are pretty indisputable. … Sánchez whiffed on 18% of sliders last year, which was right in line with his career averages. … Further compounding things was a more than 50% increase on whiffs against four-seam fastballs. … But wait, it gets worse. … Jeff Zimmerman looked at Sánchez’s poor BABIP and found the shift was killing his batting average despite his hard contact. … Add that all up, and you get an offensive performance that hit new lows this past season and has been trending downwards for quite some time.”
If the offensive struggles continue and the defensive limitations persist, Edwards is inclined to believe that “he’s a below-average player and a decent backup. And if he doesn’t get the bat back up to average, he’s the third catcher/26th man on the roster who can pinch-hit and rarely starts.”
So what should the Yankees do?
Edwards says that “the Yankees are supposedly ‘open’ to trading him, but who is going to give up decent players and pay Sánchez his $5 million salary when he isn’t really projected as a starter-level player? There are a bunch of teams who would likely be willing to take a chance on him — the Rockies, Rangers, Marlins, and Tigers come to mind immediately — but they’re probably unwilling to give up any promising or useful players in exchange.”