Gary Sanchez struggled behind the plate last season for the New York Yankees. This offseason, he’s been working at dropping weight to help his performance as a catcher. Get ready…
Let’s get one thing straight. Gary Sanchez let a lot of baseballs past him last season for the New York Yankees. While offensively he got the job done, defense was a struggle for the incredible young backstop.
As 2018 approaches, Gary Sanchez has taken it upon himself to improve his skills. This time, it was reported that he cut some weight this offseason to help prepare for his future behind the plate.
Gary Sanchez has worked hard on slimming down, with his defense in mind: https://t.co/R9xLrnyk4y #Yankees
— Brendan Kuty (@BrendanKutyNJ) February 9, 2018
As reported by Brandan Kuty of NJ.com, Sanchez has lost 20 pounds this offseason in anticipation of him being more nimble behind the plate. This comes on the heels of him allowing 16 passed balls in 2017, tied for the most among catchers.
Will slimming down really help with that? Without that extra bulk on Sanchez, he’ll be able to get to his knees quicker and react right away to balls in the dirt. So, yeah, it’ll help.
However, we won’t know for sure until the season starts. My prediction? It’ll pay off immensely.
Now in terms of offseason signings, the Yankees got their big one of our the way with Giancarlo Stanton in December. Since then, they’ve been incredibly quiet. The Chicago Cubs, however, just inked a six-year, $126 million deal with Yu Darvish, per Jon Heyman.
While many anticipated the Yankees being contenders for Darvish, it turns out that they never offered a deal, says Ken Rosenthal.
#Yankees never made offer on Darvish, per source. Liked him, but were in position similar to #Dodgers. Wanted to clear salary to stay under luxury-tax threshold.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) February 10, 2018
So what are the Yankees’ plans for the rest of the offseason? Are they going to sit idly by? Or will they use that money saved by not pursuing Darvish for something (or someone) else?
#Yankees options clearer with Darvish signing elsewhere. They can be opportunistic if Lance Lynn or Mike Moustakas fall into their price range. Yankees would like to spend no more than $15M before Opening Day to maintain trade deadline flexibility. @MLB @MLBNetwork
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) February 10, 2018
Even better news? The Yankees won’t be forced to trade away any veteran contracts to accommodate another move, like they would likely have had to do if pursuing Darvish. Now, it seems that David Robertson and Brett Gardner are safe.
There is still time to make a move before spring training. Let’s see if the Yankees decide to go for it at the right price when it comes to free agents.
