With the start of the regular season being pushed back to an unknown date, the New York Yankees are in a position to refine their fundamentals and learn from their mistakes in 2019. One player who’s actively changing his game significantly, is catcher, Gary Sanchez.
Sanchez has seen his game go up and down in relevant categories, especially on defense. To give you an idea of how his statistics had fluctuated in recent years, Sanchez recorded 18 homers in 2018 but just six total errors on defense. Fast forward to 2019, and he smashed 34 homers but logged 15 errors. His fielding percentage also decreased over that same period, indicating an influx in offensive production with a relative defense reduction.
Fixing these issues demands multiple things, starting with mitigating injury concerns. That’s why Sanchez is working on a new stance behind the plate than takes pressure off his lower back, which has been the catalyst for injuries in recent years.
El Gary’s new stance includes a crouch with his right knee on the ground. The New York Post’s George King III details this new approach:
The lower setup is designed to improve Sánchez’s ability to frame borderline pitches in the bottom of the strike zone but not interfere with his improved blocking skills or take anything away from an above-average throwing arm. It also may reduce the stress on Sánchez’s legs, which have suffered muscle injuries the past two seasons that landed him on the injured list a combined four times.
Sanchez has often struggled with framing pitches efficiently, which can cause pitchers to lower their trust in his abilities to earn more strikes off human error. This refine stance should give him more leverage and control over his body while catching, allowing him to raise his glove on pitches lower in the strike zone to curate a strike-effect.
Who’s behind Sanchez’s new stance — one Yankees coach:
Catching coach Tanner Swanson is the mastermind behind the change, and as a first-year coach with the Yankee, he’s taking a big risk. According to FanGraphs, Swanson’s approach has seen success, specifically with the Minnesota Twins.
Via our pitch framing metrics, Minnesota was nearly nine runs better than the Yankees in the pitch framing department last year (+3.4 runs versus -5.3), with Sánchez (-6.8) considerably worse than either catcher in the Twins’ tandem, namely Jason Castro (+3.2) and Mitch Garver (+0.8) — the later of whom improved by a full 10 runs relative to 2018.
Based on these numbers, Sanchez should see an increase in productivity, and taking pressure off his lower back will be a bi-product. We should see a better defender in Gary this upcoming season.