In the lead-up to the MLB trade deadline earlier this week, New York Yankees fans hoped that general manager Brian Cashman would put together a deal to improve the team's catcher depth, which has been less than ideal this season.
Over the last several weeks, the Yankees have been running with the catching duo of Austin Wells and Ali Snchez, which hasn't been a mixed bag. If you told Yankee fans that Sanchez, who started at Triple-A Scranton-Wilkes/Barre earlier this season, would have a better batting average (.268) than Wells (.169), they would have thought it was a joke.
However, it's not a joke, and even with his solid production behind Wells, it's still not enough. With that in mind, the Yankees are exploring all avenues to fix their deadline failure. On Friday, they decided to kick the tires on free-agent catcher Mitch Garver , who was sent packing earlier this week by the Seattle Mariners .
According to Ted Schwerzler of minnesotasportsfan.com , the Yankees are signing Garver to a minor-league deal, and he'll report to Scranton-Wilkes/Barre. Schwerzler adds that the veteran catcher has an opt-out in his pact later this month, which is notable.
Gary Phillips of the New York Daily News confirmed Schwerzler's report and added this nugget on Garver, saying that the veteran catcher "previously worked with" New York's catching director Tanner Swanson in Minnesota .
When Yankee fans were thinking about a right-handed catcher earlier this week, they did not have Garver in mind, but beggars can't be choosers at this point. Cashman is clearly grasping for straws and may have just created a competition for the job.
Before the team signed Garver, they also picked up veteran catcher Christian Bethancourt at the end of July, who was assigned to Triple-A. Bethancourt is currently hitting .313 with three home runs, six RBI, and an OPS of 1.264 in four games with the RailRiders.
Meanwhile, the 35-year-old Garver has struggled at the plate this season, hitting .175 with four home runs, 15 RBI, and an OPS of .596 (career worst) in 50 games with Seattle. In his three seasons with the Mariners, the veteran catcher has hit below .200 twice.
And to make things worse, he's hitting .139 vs. right-handed and .222 against southpaws this season.
When you compare that to Sanchez, who's hitting .268 overall at the plate this season, it's night and day. The 29-year-old catcher is struggling against right-handed pitching (.174 average), but has had success against lefties (.333 average) this season.
If you're in Sanchez's shoes, he clearly has the advantage over Garver at the plate. Now, when it comes to defense this season, Garver is ranked in the 17th percentile in framing (-4), per Baseball Savant .
Sanchez isn't ranked in any percentile yet for framing, but has a score of 5 , which is good for someone with 174 innings under his belt in the major leagues this season.
Needless to say, the Yankees are doing whatever they can to bolster their catching depth after failing to do so earlier this week. If Sanchez can continue to string together solid at-bats and limit the errors (4), he should be able to keep his job.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/mlb/yankees/onsi as Ali Sanchez's Job Could Now Be in Jeopardy With Latest Catcher Signing .
