Is the Yankees Catcher Situation in need of a Change?
The Yankees are perennial World Series contenders, but there is one position that started to become questioned. Is the Yankees catcher situation in need of a change? In case you missed my previous article: I am not a Yankee fan.
However, it is impossible as a native New Yorker to be oblivious to Yankee fans’ often ridiculous and hilarious issues and suggestions for the team. “Stanton is a bum, trade him for Realmuto”, “Chapman is finished” are just some of the entertaining yet puzzling phrases I’ve heard uttered in the last 365 days.
But the cream always rises to the top. There is one phrase that rises above all other irrational grievances. This grievance involves a former All Star who has been hyped since he was 16 in the Dominican Republic, signed for an amateur record (at the time) $3 Million and has received MVP votes, and a career minor leaguer. The phrase goes something like this:
“We should trade/bench Sanchez and have Higashioka be the Starter”
-Irrational(?) Yankees fans everywhere
This is a (mostly) baseball site and I assume that you, said reader, follows most of baseball closely. But, it’s the offseason and 2020 has been hard on all of us, so a deep dive on Gary Sanchez and Kyle Higashioka seems appropriate.
Gary Sanchez
His best year in 2017, is a year that saw him (at the age of 24):
- Make his first of 2 All Star teams,
- Win his first Silver Slugger,
- Garner back of the ballot MVP votes.
- When wearing a glove, he caught 23 runners stealing, ranking 5th in the MLB.
By all means this was his coming out party after his otherworldly debut in 2016 in which he swatted 20 home runs in 53 games (a rate of 1 HR per 11.45 PA). However, this would prove to be a highwater mark for the Yankees catcher, as injuries and streakiness have prevented Sanchez from ever reaching the same stretch of dominance. Sanchez has only played over 100 games once since 2017.
Since his 2016 debut, here is how Gary Sanchez matches up to his catching contemporaries.
- 13th in Games Played
- 10th in PA
- 5th in Overall WAR
- 2nd in Offensive WAR (Realmuto is 1st)
- 1st in Exit Velocity
- 1st in Home Runs
- 2nd in WRC+ (Grandal is 1st)
That is very, very good. When healthy, Gary Sanchez is a premier middle of the order bat, playing a premium position. His Exit Velocity has actually increased every year since his debut. Offensively, Gary almost has no equal, but he has missed substantial time compared to the rest of the wRC+ leaderboard since 2016 (below).
- Yasmani Grandal – 118 wRC+ – 594 games played
- Gary Sanchez – 117 – 419
- Willson Contreras -116 – 493
- J.T. Realmuto – 114 – 595
- Wilson Ramos – 113 – 492
- Buster Posey – 110 – 505
So after reading the above charts, one might ask, why the disdain for Gary in the Bronx? Gary has been streaky, but overall his numbers have been at the top of his field, including the advanced stats about his defense.
Two things have put Gary on a Yankee fan’s list of grievances:
1. His rockstar start. Gary came out the gates of Trenton looking like the final piece of the new Yankees’ dynasty. He debuted in 2016 and played 53 games and hit 20 homers and finished 2nd in Rookie of the Year Voting. In 2017, he followed that up with an All Star appearance, Silver Slugger, a few MVP votes and 33 bombs. The Astros won the whole thing in 2017, but the Yankees took them to 7 games in the ALCS.
The “Baby Bombers” looked terrifying, and they weren’t even in their final form yet. (Gleyber was still in AAA!) Braggadocio was at an all time high in the Bronx. Yankee fans were making parade plans and 28 rings T-shirts.
But not quite. Since the high of that year, the Yankees have gotten tantalizingly close but have ultimately failed to make the World Series each year after. For most other fan bases, there would be a bit more leash, but Sanchez is a Yankee. Every year after 2017 has been injury marred or very streaky. And when you wear 28 Rings t-shirts, very good doesn’t always cut it.
2. His defense doesn’t pass the eye test. Sanchez has always been among the top of the league in passed balls. He looks awkward at times receiving, and it always seems that his defense becomes an issue at the worst moment. His Defensive WAR tells a different story. He has been slightly better than Wilson Ramos over the last 4 years which isn’t great, but is certainly a workable mark. Even with the substantial time missed, Sanchez is still 4th in WAR over the last 4 years at Catcher.
Defensive WAR doesn’t tell the whole story though. If one examines the framing metrics from MLB (Baseball Savant), we see maddening inconsistency. 2 out of the 5 years, Sanchez has been above average as a framer, which is good. However, both of those years have been followed by below average years and 2019’s regression is truly alarming. Hence why the Yankees hired Tanner Swanson, the catching guru from the Twins who was credited with Mitch Garver’s turnaround behind the plate. He was brought in to fix Gary’s blocking and improve his framing. We haven’t seen much in the way of results yet, however, and the high-profile catching guru seems to have honed in the focus on every aspect of Gary’s receiving.
Do Yankees fans really think they have a better option available?
Kyle Higashioka
Unfortunately, Mr. Higashioka has a tiny sample size at the MLB level. 72 Games, 224 PA don’t really tell us much.
Gary is easily the better MLB hitter by default but let’s turn to the larger sample size – the minors. Maybe Kyle just hasn’t gotten a fair shake, but he also posted a .727 OPS across parts of 12 minor league seasons.
Sanchez is clearly the better hitter. Whether you like his K-happy ways or not, he produces, and he produces at a top 5 at his position in the MLB level. It’s the other side of the ball where Yankee fans strife has mostly come. So let’s check the defense and see what shakes out.
- RES = Runs Extra Strikes = called strike percentage of all non-swings in that zone
- SR = Strike Rate = converts strikes to runs saved on a .125 run/strike basis, and includes park and pitcher adjustments
Even with the caveat of an extremely small sample size, the eye test is mostly correct. Behind the plate, Kyle is the superior defender. Although Gary’s arm evens it out slightly, it is still solidly an advantage to Kyle. However even with this advantage, Gary is still the vastly more valuable player.
Glove first catchers are abundant (Jeff Mathis looking at you) and valuable. However, even multiple time Gold Glovers have trouble equalling Gary’s production when the whole player is considered. The only Gold Glover since Gary Sanchez’s debut to accrue more WAR than him is Buster Posey, a future Hall of Famer.
So there’s been multiple charts and numbers presented herein. The takeaway is this: Gary Sanchez will probably never win Gold Gloves, but he’s going to hit to the point that it won’t matter much. Higashioka is the perfect complement to Gary’s skillset and can always be used as a late inning replacement. But the message is clear for Yankees fans: there are many other things worse in life than the Yankees catcher combo producing at a top 5 level.
To answer the title question here: No, the Yankees probably do not need a catcher replacement. It does seem however, that a shortstop would be useful.
-Evan Brown
