Top Yankee prospect Gary Sanchez has found himself in the doghouse at Double-A Trenton, where he has been benched for disciplinary reasons. Sanchez was originally in Wednesday’s lineup before being scratched, and was on the bench again on Thursday.
After Thursday’s game, Franklin clarified the situation for Trentonian beat writer Nick Peruffo.
“It was disciplinary action,” Franklin told Peruffo. “I needed to take care of that today, to get things clarified and cleared up. I’m not going to tell you what it was, but it was a violation of some of our guidelines and I needed to take care of it. Gary is out of there for a couple of days until we decide he deserves to play again, plain and simple.”
“It’s more to it than just playing,” Franklin added. “It’s conducting yourself like a professional at all times.”
Franklin is generally always protective of his players. Back in 2008, he went as far as to defend former Yankee farmhand Jose Tabata, who left the stadium in the middle of a game. Yet with Sanchez, he did not offer that same layer of protection, leading me to believe that the issue is actually rather serious.
Franklin, Sanchez, and the Thunder coaching staff had a closed door meeting after their 4-3 victory on Thursday, which, as Peruffo pointed out on Twitter, was at least the second time such a meeting has occurred this season.
With rehabbing catcher Francisco Cervelli making the trip with the Thunder to New Britain for this weekend’s series, it seems entirely possible that Sanchez may not see the field until the next homestand begins on Tuesday. In fact, it is very possible that the closed door meeting was to inform Sanchez that he would not even be making the trip to New Britain.
