Yankees MiLB News: Thunder Year in Review

Mandatory Credit: (Robert M. Pimpsner/Pinstriped Prospects)

It’s hard to believe that after what seems to be quite a few years of hearing about the greatness of Gary Sanchez that he is still only 21-years-old. Maybe that’s why he had such a roller coaster of a season as he was transitioning from boy to man. Whatever the case was, Sanchez did not live up to the 2014 expectations imposed on him.

The bottom line is that a .270/.341/.453 slash line isn’t horrible. 13 home runs and 65 RBI don’t constitute a terrible season by any means either. When you enter the season as the number one prospect in the system and the unquestioned leader of a team that is defending its title, then it becomes a bit worrisome. Sanchez’s numbers were on par with his career averages, but this was the year he was supposed to take the next step. We were supposed to see something special out of Sanchez, but instead, we saw simply more of the same.

More worrisome was the midseason run-in with Tony Franklin. The juicy details were, for the most part, swept under the rug, but Sanchesz’s attitude got him into Franklin’s dog house. Whatever he did merited him a five-game suspension by the coaching staff. Sanchez’s season took another hit when he was bumped from top prospect to number two at midseason by Severino.

The hopes were that Sanchez would be taking the reigns for the RailRiders in 2015. It wouldn’t surprise me at all to see him back in Double-A to at least start things off next year.