Yankees tendering Gary Sanchez contract was smart solution all along

The Yankees seem likely to tender Gary Sanchez a contract for 2021 now, and that’s the right call, as long as they don’t plan to be embarrassingly cheap.

Not tendering a contract to Gary Sanchez would’ve only been an appropriate maneuver if the Yankees intended to be cheaper than cheap this offseason.

After all, if their goal is to have even a semi-normal payroll, giving a $2-$3 million raise to a two-time All-Star catcher coming off a bad 60-game sample would be a no-brainer, right?

Even if said player’s role might be deemphasized in 2021, and even if you’re willing to cut bait and entertain trade options for said player, you still offer him a baseline deal if you plan to compete under normal financial circumstances.

And so, even though we were all somewhat surprised to hear the news on Friday that the Yankees were likely to tender Gary Sanchez a new contract after all, following a week of speculation to the contrary, we probably shouldn’t have been.

Sanchez will probably receive a maximum of $7 million in his second year of arbitration, which is the type of one-year contract a big-spending team should be able to absorb. Even if you, personally, are souring on Sanchez (something the Yankees proved they’re also doing, based on the 2020 playoffs!), you should view their willingness to absorb that money as good news.

If they don’t find this moderate sum prohibitive, it indicates they’re probably willing to extend themselves elsewhere. Based on what we saw at the end of 2020, they’re not mortgaging their entire offseason plan to pay Sanchez.

Veteran beat writer George A. King set the speculation train rolling last week, planting the nugget that the Yankees were considering cutting their catcher loose instead of exploring the trade market.

When you get down to the nuts and bolts, though, that didn’t make a whole lot of sense.

Will Gary Sanchez be the Yankees’ starting catcher for parts of 2021, or for the whole damn thing? That we can’t tell you.

But the first step towards figuring this whole thing out was accepting the slight penalty of extending Sanchez a new contract. If the Yanks are willing to take this small risk, perhaps they’ll be able to swallow slightly larger ones, too.

Yankees: Swapping out Gary Sanchez for JT Realmuto is not the answer

The New York Yankees do need to get rid of Gary Sanchez, but they don't need to spend a ton of money on JT Realmuto in free agency.