New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone has made it clear that he will not limit Gary Sanchez by using Austin Romine as a personal catcher.
Gary Sanchez is a transcendent talent. If the New York Yankees are going to be successful this year, he’s going to be a big reason why. That’s why Aaron Boone is already brushing aside the idea of using Austin Romine as a personal catcher for anybody on the pitching staff.
Boone told George A. King III of the New York Post:
I think you pigeonhole a guy and I would like to stay away from that. I want to feel good about our catcher-pitcher relationship no matter if we have Ro back there or Gary back there. I am confident we will have that with all our starters and our catchers.
The first-year manager is making it clear early on that he plans on making Sanchez a mainstay behind the plate and this makes perfect sense. Last season, the Yankees had a relatively open spot at DH so it made sense to start Romine in some scenarios because you could keep Sanchez’s bat in the lineup.
With the addition of Giancarlo Stanton, the lineup is a bit more crowded and Stanton is likely to be the de facto everyday DH. Essentially, the dropoff is much greater when you put Romine in the lineup this season than it was last season.
Sanchez has had issues with blocking balls in the dirt and handling tough breaking balls from the likes of Sonny Gray and Jordan Montgomery. It got to the point where Girardi started Romine behind the dish and relegated Sanchez to the DH role in a postseason game.
Sanchez needs to make an improvement defensively this season, but last year was his first full year catching in the big leagues. He’s too good of an all-around player to mess around with making Romine anyone’s personal catcher.
