Gary Sanchez has been subject to some of the harshest critiques over the past few seasons with the Yankees. Having come up and absolutely demolished the baseball during the 2016 season, Gary’s seasons have been roller-coasters ever since.
In 2019, specifically, he posted an OPS of .841 to pair with a 116 WRC+ and a 2.3 fWAR. While it was a massive step forward from his disaster of a 2018 season — which was plagued with injuries, questions about his work ethic and hustle, and a batting average right at the Mendoza Line (.186) — there is most definitely more in the tank for Gary Sanchez.
In his 2016 season, he finished runner-up to Michael Fulmer for AL Rookie of the Year, despite only having played in 53 Games. In those 53 games, El Kraken made the Yankees relevant and was one of the few bright spots in a year that saw the Yankees miss the playoffs entirely. That year Gary clubbed 20 HR’s to pair with a 170 WRC+, 1.032 OPS, and an fWAR of 3.1 — all again, across essentially only a third of the season. If one were to be a dreamer and extrapolate those numbers out to 162 games, that would be one of the greatest seasons in MLB history, assuming he kept the torrid pace he was on.
The following year Gary started the year off well and showed consistency and great pop in the bat. Not to mention he was one of the best at gunning down runners attempting to steal, despite his poor defensive output. Regardless of such, the consensus opinion across the league after the 2017 season was that there were few if any, catchers better than Gary Sanchez. He looked to be on the up-and-up and as if he would continue to improve across all facets of his game.
However, as mentioned his disastrous 2018 would bleed over into 2019, and despite his improvement, Gary Sanchez has seemingly never channeled that 2016 season that saw him skyrocket to the top of baseball’s crop of MLB catchers.
What can the Yankees expect out of El Gary in 2020?
With the 2020 season seemingly just around the corner, Boone and co have been looking for Gary Sanchez to show signs of improvement and further work on his defensive abilities especially. While Gary may not ever be able to reach that level of play that he showcased back in 2016, there is certainly reason to believe that he can put together another solid year next year, even better than his 2019 season.
If he were to limit his K% (28% in 2019, highest in his career), and swing at more pitches in the zone than out of the zone — 59.2% Z-Swing % (lowest in his career) & 35.3% O-Swing % (highest in his career) — then there is definite reason to believe that Gary Sanchez can be an absolute wrecking-ball of a player once again. All he seemingly needs to do is be more patient, but also to attack the pitches in the zone more frequently. Gary also had the highest Hard Hit % of his career in 2019, at 42.1%, indicating that he was hitting the ball hard, just seemingly not getting as many good results from it. His .293 ISO Power also indicates the same thing, and if Gary is able to just get a bit more luck on his side, the results should come flowing in along with it.
Gary is a tremendous hitter and excels at pulling the ball. Assuming he stays healthy and is able to tweak some of the minor flaws in his game, El Kraken will be a staple in the middle of the potent Yankees lineup in 2020. Having another power bat never hurts, and Gary’s ability to gun down runners that attempt to steal is something that he needs to re-kindle.
In 2016, 41% of runners that attempted to steal on Gary were thrown out. That number has since been going down rapidly each year (38% in ’17, 30% in ’18, and 23% this previous season) & if he is able to even up that number back to the 30% it was in 2018, it would bring back another dangerous dimension to his game. However, what a luxury it is to be able to look for, and to expect more from a player who is coming off a season in which he OPS’d .841, which was good for third across the entire league (behind Contreras and Grandal).