Do you remember Jesus Montero? Some Yankee fans loved this guy when he first came up in 2011:
18 games
69 PA
4 HR
OPS .996
OPS+ 163
I was skeptical and not just about his bat. He was a catcher who showed no passion or even interest in catching. I thought he was a golfer: a guy who just wants to swing the clubs.
January 23, 2012: Traded by the New York Yankees with Hector Noesi to the Seattle Mariners for Vicente Campos and Michael Pineda.
March 28, 2016: Selected off waivers by the Toronto Blue Jays from the Seattle Mariners.
November 7, 2016: Granted Free Agency.
January 3, 2017: Signed as a Free Agent with the Baltimore Orioles.
June 27, 2017: Released by the Baltimore Orioles.
Montero fizzled out.
Gary Sanchez:
Born: December 2, 1992 (Age: 25-235d) in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
July 2, 2009: Signed by the New York Yankees as an amateur free agent.
That's two years before the major league debut of Montero. Sanchez was only 16 years old. Sanchez was 22 when played two Yankee games in 2015 and 23 when he started his spectacular rookie breakout Aug. 3, 2016. Sanchez hit like Babe Ruth (20 homers in 201 AB) and showed a cannon for an arm.
But maybe we let that give us an unrealistic view of Gary Sanchez and think he was a Yankee version of Reds legendary catcher Johnny Bench. Not everyone has both the talent and passion to be a catcher. Montero did not. Bench did. Yadier Molina does for the Cardinals today.
Bench was a starter at age 20 in 1968 and NL MVP in 1970 and 1972. But by 1970 Bench was also playing other positions. His only seasons of only catching: 1968, 1969, 1980 (114 games). And even so, Bench was broken down by his early 30s and finished at 35. Catching is brutal work and most players don't want any part of it.
Early in the 2017 season I was telling friends that the Yankees should move Gary Sanchez to third base, where he could still use his powerful arm but remove himself from the pounding that he was taking behind the plate. That would extend and protect his career, which would be based on his bat.
Nature may have run its course for Gary Sanchez. He made a legitimate effort to be the best catcher that he could be but without the passion it would never happen. Both Sanchez and the Yankees are much better off if he moves from catcher. Third base is now occupied on the Yankees by surprising 23 year old rookie Miguel Andujar, who has a slugging average of .500 on 30 doubles, 2 triples, 12 home runs.
I never liked the Yankees consigning their new off season acquisition, slugger Giancarlo Stanton, mostly to DH (Designated Hitter). I thought that Stanton should remain in the outfield where he hit 59 home runs last season with Miami.
When Sanchez returns, he should DH and the Yankees should soften the move by making it part of protecting Sanchez from further injuring his legs. The transition away from catcher would then seem inevitable, especially if Sanchez snaps out of his 2018 hitting slump. Sanchez could eventually migrate to another fielding position. He's too young to be a full time DH.
So who would catch for the Yankees? It doesn't matter:
Your catcher should not be one of your better hitters. Saturday, November 30, 2013
Conventional wisdom in recent years has been that a team has an advantage if it has good offensive production from a defensive position, generally one up the middle: catcher, shortstop, second base, center field. The Yankees since 1996 are used as an example: Jorge Posada, Derek Jeter, Robinson Cano, Bernie Williams.
However, that only helps if the team has big boppers at the corners, otherwise it's just shifting it's offense.
I now think that it's a mistake to pay too much money to a catcher. The Jorge Posada model is outdated...
My general view is that you don't want one of your better hitters to be your catcher because you will over pay for a player who will get hurt or will be rested to prevent him from being hurt even more than he is rested. I think that the optimal thing is to have two catchers of about equal value and have them split the catching duties...
The ideal would be one catcher who hits lefty getting 70% of the games and another catcher who hits righty getting the remaining 30%.
The problem is that teams are paying full time salaries for part time players. For $17 million (Brian McCann) the Yankees can get a really good full time player or a really good starting pitcher. The Giants will be paying Buster Posey $21 million per season as he ages. The Twins have been paying Joe Mauer $23 million and Mauer will transition to first base in 2014 and get that same pay for several more years. It's nuts...
In addition, teams are becoming much more concerned about concussions, especially for catchers who absorb most of that type of physical abuse in baseball.
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