I know I am probably not the only one with the mindset that the catching position should be covered by a veteran athlete. Now, I may/may not get a mix of disputes about my opinion in today’s articles, but I feel like someone has to voice their opinion what is happening with the backstop position on the New York Yankees. I will be brutally honest, when Jorge Posada retired in 2013 from the backstop position on the Yankees, I felt like Gary Sanchez was rushed up to fill the void on the team.
Yeah, yeah, I was fed into the hype of Sanchez’s hot bat and a gun for an arm, but I still had a part of me that doubted his readiness for the majors. I mean I was and still am one of the fans that is frustrated that we gave up a great veteran backstop in Austin Romine and focused all the attention on a youth that still had to fine-tune his skills as an overall player.
I for one wanted to see Romine take over the everyday backstop position after Rivera left, but Hal Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman followed the building from within blueprint. Still to this day, I still don’t get why you would replace a veteran catcher (Rivera) with a rookie, especially if you had a veteran catcher as a backup player at the position.
I will tell what, they better not rush anymore catchers up to the majors or else they will end up with the situation they are in with Sanchez.
Sanchez is not in the lineup for today’s matchup (a Sunday matinee) and manager Aaron Boone said Sanchez’s benching could last a few days, Brendan Kuty of The Newark Star-Ledger reports. Right now they have a career prospect in Kratz, they better keep him as the everyday catcher because we seen him call games so far with these young prospects on the mound.
After wearing the Golden Sombrero on Saturday, Sanchez unfortunately collected 11 strikeouts during his last five games in the batter’s box. His .130 batting average would be the lowest in baseball by 40 points, if he had enough plate appearances to qualify. The way it is looking, Boone will have to pencil in Erik Kratz and Kyle Higashioka to man the catching duties until the Yanks deem Sanchez ready to return.
I say that is the way it oughta be, a veteran manning the backstop and a youngster as a backup catcher. I know I regret trading away Romine, and hope that won’t be the situation for the veteran Kratz when Sanchez returns.
The Pinstriped Baseball Lane 