Clayton Kershaw has Austin Barnes.
Gerrit Cole has Kyle Higashioka.
Are there any Twins starters who will use Gary Sánchez as their personal catcher?
The concept is far from new, but it should be a serious consideration for Minnesota’s six-man rotation. Barring a lengthy absence, young backstop Ryan Jeffers is sure to get the lion’s share of catching duties in 2022, especially after the club shipped veteran Mitch Garver to the Texas Rangers in an off-season trade. But the Twins are still going to expect Sánchez to get occasional starts behind the plate in addition to his role as primary designated hitter. Sánchez has built a reputation as one of the more defensively-challenged catchers in recent years. But he got his first taste of action as starting catcher in Sunday’s 10-4 win over the Seattle Mariners, with Bailey Ober on the bump.
He was locked in offensively, as evident by his first inning grand slam off Marco Gonzales. But his bat wasn’t an uncertainty when the Twins acquired him from the New York Yankees. Instead, Minnesota is hoping to discover how usable he can be as a backup catcher. Would pairing him with one or two starters make him less susceptible to defensive miscues?
Ober is definitely the cleanest fit to use Sanchez as his personal catcher for the season, and the two worked pretty well together in their debut as a tandem on Sunday. Ober threw five innings, striking out four and walking just one batter while surrendering four runs. Most of that damage came on a three-run home run off Mitch Haniger‘s bat. Outside of that miscue, the two worked reasonably well together.
Their match is based on Sánchez’s challenges with blocking pitches in the dirt, something Yankees fans are quick to bring up thanks to five years of passed balls in the Bronx. Fortunately, Ober has pinpoint control, especially with his fastball. Ober has found the most success when he keeps that heater up and out of the zone.
Last year, hitters chased 32% of Ober’s fastballs out of the strike zone, good for third-highest in all of baseball among pitchers with at least 80 innings pitched. His slider was his main breaking pitch, and he rarely buried them last year in an effort to try and tunnel the pitch with his high fastball. Because Ober rarely puts the ball in the dirt, he may be the perfect match to have Sánchez as a personal catcher if all goes as planned.
Beyond that, Opening Day starter Joe Ryan comes off as a reasonable match for many of the same reasons. He threw his fastball 66% of the time last year, with an occasional slider (roughly 16% usage) and a rare changeup to lefties thrown in. That repertoire definitely seems manageable with Sánchez’s strengths and weaknesses behind the dish. However, knowing the Twins and pitching coach Wes Johnson, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Ryan up his slider usage in his first full year in the Twins organization.
Monday’s 4-0 win over the Mariners also featured some solid chemistry between Sánchez and starter Dylan Bundy. The starting pitcher went five rock-solid innings, and while he only struck out two, he only allowed two base runners — one via a walk and another on a first inning double off the bat of Eugenio Suárez. While the match is a curious fit based on Bundy’s propensity for burying curveballs and changeups last year, the two looked to be on the same page on Monday night. Maybe they can keep that chemistry going throughout the season, but that is still very much to be determined.
While Sánchez will most likely end up catching most of the Twins’ pitchers at some point throughout the season, it’ll be interesting to see how much time he gets with the elder statesman of the rotation, Sonny Gray. The two shared a tandem in New York from 2017 to 2018, but those years are considered to be among the worst in Gray’s nine-year career.
Is that all due to having Sánchez as his catcher? Surely not. But if the manager Rocco Baldelli is tasked with putting his guys in the situations where they will have the most success, it might be best to avoid that pairing if possible. One of Gray’s defining traits as a successful starter is getting batters to chase his lethal slider, among the best in baseball. He uses that pitch with frequency, especially against right-handed hitters. Given Sánchez’s challenges with pitches in the dirt, that could diminish the value of one of Gray’s best weapons.
The Twins don’t need to reinvent the wheel for Sánchez to be a productive part-time catcher. Can they help him make some tweaks to his approach behind the dish? Possibly. But in the meantime, the best scenario would be for him to get the majority of the time with a few set rotation pieces who play to his strengths rather than his vulnerabilities.
