Gary Sánchez was a C who played for the New York Yankees from 2015-2021. Career stats: .230 batting average, 138 home runs, 340 RBI.
Gary Sanchez might be the most argued-about catcher the New York Yankees have had since Thurman Munson, and it isn't close. From 2015 through 2021 he did two things at an elite level -- hit moonshots and let baseballs get past him -- and Yankees fans spent seven years unable to agree on which one mattered more. He arrived as a $3 million international signing out of the Dominican Republic in 2009, debuted with a pinch-hit at-bat in October 2015, and by August 2016 had turned into the most explosive rookie the Stadium had seen in a generation.
The Baby Bomber Who Broke Baseball
Sanchez got recalled on August 3, 2016, ten days before Aaron Judge joined him -- the same week the Yankees played out Alex Rodriguez's farewell, like the front office needed to clear a locker in a hurry. (Bronx summers don't do subtle transitions.) What Sanchez did next still sounds made up. He hit 11 home runs in his first 23 career games, the fastest anyone in Major League history has ever gotten there (the previous record, George Scott's 26 games back in 1966, had stood for half a century). Twenty homers in 53 games, a .299 average, and a runner-up finish in AL Rookie of the Year voting behind Detroit's Michael Fulmer -- who'd played a full season to Sanchez's third of one. Four of the thirty writers who voted actually had Sanchez first. The emergence wasn't a hot streak. It was a legitimately historic debut, and it set an impossible bar he spent the rest of his career either clearing or crashing into.
Proof It Wasn't a Fluke
2017 was the real answer. Sanchez made his first All-Star team, won his only Silver Slugger, and posted a season -- 33 home runs, 90 RBI, a .531 slugging percentage -- that led every catcher in the sport in all three categories. He was 24 and looked like a franchise cornerstone behind the plate for the next decade.
Then the Passed Balls Showed Up
2018 is where the other half of the argument moved in and never left. Sanchez hit .186, which is bad enough on its own, but the real story happened behind the plate: 18 passed balls, most in all of baseball, in barely 650 innings caught -- a rate that would've been ugly at double the workload. He also got caught jogging down the line on a game-ending double play (the kind of thing that gets a bench coach's blood pressure up) and admitted afterward, through an interpreter, "I should've run harder." Joe Girardi defended him publicly. The front office defended him publicly. None of it made the freakin' passed balls disappear.
The Peak, and the Ceiling
He answered with the best power season of his career in 2019 -- a second All-Star nod, a career-high 34 home runs, and a home run on August 23 that made him the fastest catcher in Major League history to 100 career homers, 67 games quicker than Mike Piazza ever managed it. The 2020 COVID season wiped it all out: a .147 average, a September benching, and just two starts in seven playoff games as the club leaned on Kyle Higashioka instead. 2021 brought a partial power rebound -- 23 homers in 117 games -- but the Yankees still trusted Higashioka to start the win-or-go-home Wild Card Game. That told you everything you needed to know about where the trust had gone.
On March 13, 2022, the Yankees packaged Sanchez with Gio Urshela and sent him to Minnesota for Josh Donaldson and Isiah Kiner-Falefa. Seven seasons, zero rings, and a debate that still hasn't been settled on a single barstool in the Bronx.
| Yankees Seasons | 7 (2015--2021) |
| Yankees Games | 538 |
| Yankees HR | 138 |
| Yankees RBI | 340 |
| Yankees Batting Average | .230 |
| Career High HR (Season) | 34 (2019) |
| All-Star Selections | 2 (2017, 2019) |
| Fastest Catcher to 100 HR | 355 games (MLB record) |
Signed as an International Free Agent
The Yankees sign the 16-year-old Sanchez out of the Dominican Republic for a $3 million bonus, one of the largest ever given to a Dominican catching prospect at the time.
Recalled to the Majors
Sanchez is called up from Triple-A and ignites one of the most explosive rookie stretches in franchise history.
Fastest to 11 Home Runs in MLB History
Sanchez hits his 11th career home run in his 23rd game, breaking a record that had stood since George Scott set it in 1966.
All-Star and Silver Slugger
Sanchez hits 33 home runs with 90 RBI and a .531 slugging percentage, leading all MLB catchers in each category.
100th Career Home Run
Sanchez becomes the fastest catcher in MLB history to reach 100 home runs, doing it in his 355th career game.
Traded to the Minnesota Twins
The Yankees send Sanchez and Gio Urshela to Minnesota for Josh Donaldson and Isiah Kiner-Falefa, closing the book on his Yankees tenure.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many home runs did Gary Sanchez hit for the Yankees?
138 home runs in 538 games across seven seasons (2015-2021), a power total built on a genuinely rare skill for a catcher -- he hit at least 10 homers in every full season he played and topped 20 in four of them.
Why did the Yankees trade Gary Sanchez?
Persistent defensive issues -- he led MLB in passed balls in 2018 with 18 -- combined with wildly inconsistent hitting (his batting average ranged from .299 to .147 across his Yankees seasons) wore down the front office's patience. The Yankees traded him and Gio Urshela to Minnesota on March 13, 2022, for Josh Donaldson and Isiah Kiner-Falefa.
What is Gary Sanchez's record for fastest catcher to 100 home runs?
He hit his 100th career home run on August 23, 2019, in his 355th game -- the fastest any catcher in MLB history has reached the mark, 67 games faster than Mike Piazza's previous record.
Did Gary Sanchez win AL Rookie of the Year?
No. He finished second in the 2016 voting behind Detroit's Michael Fulmer, despite playing in just 53 games after an August call-up -- four of the thirty writers who voted still put him first.
So no, I won't pretend the passed balls didn't happen -- 18 in one season isn't a rounding error. But 138 home runs from a catcher isn't one either. Gary Sanchez was never quite the disaster his critics wanted and never quite the superstar his rookie month promised. He was both, at the same time, for seven years -- and that's exactly why nobody in the Bronx has ever fully agreed on him.