Yankees will tender contract to Gary Sanchez

The Yankees will tender a contract to catcher Gary Sanchez, reports Jack Curry of the YES Network. Sanchez has come up as a possible non-tender candidate in each of the past two offseasons, but he’ll be offered a contract and remain with the club for the time being. He’s projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn $7.9 million in 2022 — his final season of arbitration eligibility.

Sanchez, 29 this week, has become a polarizing player among Yankee fans considering his near-unparalleled power at the catcher position but also his low batting averages, high strikeout rates and shaky defensive skills. The former top prospect looked like a star in the making from 2016-17 but has since ridden a roller-coaster of productivity to a composite .201/.299/.444 slash with a 28.1% strikeout rate.

Poor batting average notwithstanding, Sanchez’s ability to draw a walk and immense power clearly are valued by the Yankees (and likely would be by other clubs as well). Metrics such as wRC+ and OPS+ (both at 99 from 2018-21) suggest that the walks and power are enough to bring Sanchez right up to the cusp of league-average production, although the path he takes to get there is a rather unpopular one among fans. Still, when Sanchez is on a hot streak, his bat can carry a team. Those frequent but brief flashes of potential serve as a reminder of the overall upside and the reason that the Yankees have stuck with him despite the ups and downs.

That said, it’s not as if the Yankees chose not to explore the market for alternatives. MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweets that the Yankees explored the free-agent and trade markets for catching help in recent days before opting to simply stick with Sanchez.