Yankees: Gary Sanchez Getting Vote of Confidence From Gerrit Cole Should Help Silence Doubters

Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez gets vote of confidence from starter Gerrit Cole.

When the New York Yankees landed Gerrit Cole in free agency, it was immediately speculated how the perennial Cy Young candidate would mesh with catcher Gary Sanchez, who, despite making improvements over the years, still has a long way to go in terms of his work behind the plate.

However, early indicators suggest that the two players are generating some elite chemistry. Cole has dominated thus far at Summer Camp, and he delivered another scintillating performance in the Yankees’ latest intra-squad game on Sunday.

Afterwards, the three-time All-Star praised Sanchez for keeping him in a solid groove throughout the outing.

“It’s been nice to work with him the last couple times,” Cole told reporters. “I thought we were on the same page a lot today. And the few times we weren’t, we discussed it between innings, which was helpful.”

The 29-year-old superstar even lauded Sanchez’s defense, saying that he was “sharp behind the plate, giving me nice targets, calling nice sequences. It’s helpful that he knows the other squad better than I do.”

These comments should be music to the ears of Yankees fans, and hopefully they will help silence Sanchez’s fault-finding doubters, who are as loud as ever on social media. After all, the $324 million hurler can literally do or say no wrong right now. Everything he touches is gold, and understandably so.

Cole looked to be in midseason form on Sunday, as he allowed zero runs on four hits and struck out nine batters across 5.2 innings (84 pitches) of work. Nobody is really worried about whether the stud right-hander has the tools he needs to continue this dominance into the 2020 regular season and beyond. The story here is how hard Sanchez has worked to improve his status as a game manager behind the dish.

At the very least, The Kraken’s progress proves that his naysayers should take it easy on him until he’s deserving of criticism. Right now, that just isn’t the case. Take it from your ace.