One Fan's Opinion: Gary Sanchez the Comeback Kid

Initially, I was excited about the Twins receiving a catcher via trade. After losing Mitch Garver via trade, receiving a catcher in a later trade made sense. That excitement cooled when looking at Gary Sanchez's offensive and defensive numbers. I quickly realized that he has not been good.

He has had some moments of improvement and growth, but overall, nothing shows he is worth hanging onto. With everything he's had stacked against him, a change of scenery, moving from the Bronx Bombers to the Twins, maybe just what revives his career. As I break down his defensive and offensive woes, I also found that his hard work ethic, along with fresh hitting and catching coaches, maybe just what Sanchez needs to make a comeback.

Replacing a fan favorite
When news broke of Mitch Garver's trade to the Texas Rangers, there was a collective shock and sadness from Minnesota baseball fans. The trade was hard to digest, but the Twins had an everyday shortstop and still had Ryan Jeffers and Ben Rortvedt behind the plate. Just as fans were coming to terms with that trade, and then excited by the Sonny Gray trade, an even more shocking trade came to light. 

Late Sunday night, the Twins sent Josh Donaldson, Ben Rortvedt, and the newest acquisition Isiah Kiner-Falefa to the Yankees in exchange for Gary Sanchez and Gio Urshela. The initial assumption was that the Twins might use Sanchez in a trade for pitching, but with Garver and Rortvedt on new teams, Gary Sanchez will likely be one of the Twins' catchers. 

There is no doubt that Garver showed big improvements over his time with the Twins, both offensively and defensively. Because of that, as well as his presence in the media and on Twitter, he became a fan favorite, The idea that Gary Sanchez of the hated Yankees is replacing a fan favorite may not be sitting well with many Twins fans. 

Defensive Struggles
It will take a lot of change for Twins fans (or coaches or pitchers) to be comfortable with Sanchez behind the plate. His defensive metrics show that he struggles with pitch presentation. The numbers tend to improve and improve more as he works on his positioning and framing. They will have to improve for him to keep playing. 

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/gary-sanchez-596142?stats=statcast-r-fielding-mlb

The 6'2", 230-pound catcher has been tagged "The Worst Catcher in Baseball," and we can see why if you go solely on his defensive metrics. Watching the video helps as well.

Gary Sanchez's pitch framing and balance issues have been the bane of his existence in New York. A catcher's success is based on his positioning behind the plate in an effort to effectively frame a pitch, which seems to be Sanchez's biggest downfall. He has consistently had a problem maintaining his balance on his left side, leading to dropping down to his knees, which has allowed a lot of passed balls. With framing and receiving, he sits back on his heels with his seat below knee level, and he's moving to the ball with his whole body. 

Gary Sanchez Catching Problems Dissected

Because of his positioning, Sanchez catches the ball with large swiping motions instead of small movements receiving the ball. There is no thought that he will ever win any Gold Gloves behind the plate. Last season, he spent time in on the New York bench, including during the playoffs. The Yankees invested in help for Sanchez that may have helped him get started in the right direction, even if it was too little too late. 

Offensive Struggles
Even though he wasn't what the Yankees were hoping for after his rookie season in 2017, the team continued to give him chances because of his offensive performance early in his career. Gary Sanchez is fantastic offensively, he is an All-Star, but the past two seasons, on top of his defensive struggles, he has still struggled offensively. 

The one-time All-Star has slumped recently in numbers. The one thing that Sanchez is very capable of is hitting home runs. Last year Sanchez hit 23 home runs, one of them being a clutch grand-slam to win the game on September 5th, 2021, to beat the Orioles. 

I hope that Sanchez is willing to do whatever it takes to improve and give the Twins the edge they are deserving. The Yankees saw enough potential in Sanchez to invest time and coaching to improve his skills and get back to where he was before his injuries in 2018.

Willingness to do the work
The Yankees hired a catching coach, Tanner Swanson (the former Twins minor league catching coordinator), specifically to work with Sanchez. Swanson previously helped Mitch Garver improve, and it seems that the catcher whisperer had done it again. While working with Swanson, Sanchez had a vast improvement cutting down on passed balls based on changing his position behind the plate. 

Sanchez does have an impressive pop time of 1.93 seconds (League average is 2.01 seconds) and a cannon for an arm. When he is set right, and in a good rhythm, Sanchez quickly gets people out almost anywhere on the field, which is a defensive dream.

After working with Sanchez for some time, Tanner Swanson told AP News, "I think overall just a much more confident version of the Gary Sánchez than we saw in 2020," Swanson said. "He has attacked the offseason and been accountable for his performance in 2020. I think he's in a perfect place, and his process is sound. I've been pleased."

With Swanson at the helm, Sanchez learned how to use minimal glove movement to improve his strike count by reaching from below the strike zone and making small quick movements to steal the 'low-strike,' a technique Swanson also worked on with Mitch Garver, Ben Rortvedt, and other catchers in the Twins organization. As Sanchez continued to work on his defense, it was clear that he was not improving much. When he stopped being productive with the bat too, he needed to move on from the Yankees. 

Gary Sanchez is not a lost cause yet; perhaps a change of scenery by moving to Minnesota, a new catching coach, and a second chance would benefit the catcher. 

Why I Believe Gary Sanchez Can Have a Big Comeback Season
The Twins have hired several new coaches in the offseason, but two will be especially instrumental in working with Sanchez. David Popkins is the new hitting coach, and on December 10th, the Minnesota Twins hired a new coach, former big-league catcher Hank Conger who has been coaching in KBO since before the pandemic.

Hank Conger is a former MLB catcher who bounced around as a coach in the minors for three seasons after his 2015 season with the Astros. He has spent the past two years as a coach in Korea for the Lotte Giants. While this will be his MLB debut as a coach, the resounding applause of his hire is promising for the Twins and, hopefully, the catcher core. 

Conger has seen a lot of change from when he was drafted and began in professional baseball to now. Pitch framing is his most significant focus. All of his managers were former catchers; Conger was able to get many perspectives that he credits with who he was as a catcher and how he is now as a catcher's coach. 

When it comes to pitchers and hitters that come up, Conger's focus is on how he can help the catchers have all the information on his pitchers and the opponent's hitters. Information comes from scouting reports or in-game information. The relationship with the pitchers is just as crucial to Conger as it should be to the catcher. 

The catcher-pitcher relationship is the most important relationship on the field; from game management to communication, there must be trust between the two players and, most importantly, hard work. 

Sanchez is no stranger to hard work with pitchers; in fact, he's previously worked with Sonny Gray, the most recent Twins pitching acquisition from the Cincinnati Reds, and they have a history. Both players played for the Yankees in 2018, but the relationship was not productive. Gray had Sanchez as a catcher, but after a string of miscommunication and inconsistent tempo between the two, Gray opted for Austin Romine as his catcher. That did not stop Sanchez from wanting to improve. 

Gary Sanchez spent a lot of time watching Gray and Romine from the dugout, learning the pitcher and catcher's pitches, personality, and tempo. The hope is that the reunion in a new environment will work together with the help of the pitching and catching staff to create the tempo they couldn't find in 2018. 

Be ready for a big season
Sanchez is no stranger to powerful hitting and elite catching. The past two seasons, he certainly has struggled to find his stride. Whether it was a case of being in his head or his mechanics, there is an opportunity here in Minnesota for Sanchez to start fresh. 

If Sanchez can improve his form behind the plate and framing, he just might become a dangerous weapon for the Twins, both defensive and offensively. He already possesses the power at the plate with his swing to be a part of the beloved "bomba-squad." Whether as the DH or behind the plate, he has the potential to be a significant asset on this squad.

The Twins organization is set up for players to succeed. They are finding the coaches and players to grow a successful team, and if he puts in the work to be successful, and with the new rotation of pitchers and coaching staff, Sanchez will have a chance to shine.