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Gary Sanchez’s winter season seems to be over and Yankees fans won’t be happy about it

Thomas Carannante|
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 25: Gary Sanchez #24 of the New York Yankees reacts after striking out during the fifth inning against the Miami Marlins at Yankee Stadium on September 25, 2020 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 25: Gary Sanchez #24 of the New York Yankees reacts after striking out during the fifth inning against the Miami Marlins at Yankee Stadium on September 25, 2020 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)

Yankees fans won’t be too thrilled with Gary Sanchez’s winter league stats.

As promised after the first Dominican Winter League game he appeared in, we left Gary Sanchez alone. His debut wasn’t pretty, but we figured, “Why waste our time covering every at-bat?” It doesn’t serve anyone and it puts unneeded pressure on the Yankees catcher whether he’s succeeding or failing.

But now it appears his season with Toros del Este is over now that the playoffs have begun. Sanchez wasn’t in the lineup for the first game of their semifinal series, which all but officially indicates that he’s moving on with his offseason.

With that being said, we hate to be the bearer of bad news, but his overall body of work over the course of his 19 games really wasn’t good. While he had an incredibly impressive stretch, those numbers have regressed to the mean.

While a .245 batting average and .789 OPS is world’s better than his output during the shortened 2020 season, these numbers aren’t anything to get excited about if you’re hoping for an El Gary rebound in 2021. Sanchez wasn’t exactly under a microscope and was only intermittently battling big league talent, so one can draw the the conclusion that, while this might be a step in the right direction, it’s by no means an indication we will see marked improvement next year.

And it’s clear the strikeouts are still there. He was fanned 19 times in 15 games, which is pretty much right on pace with his 64 Ks in 49 games with the Bombers in 2020.

Is this the end of the world? Absolutely not. The entire Yankees fan base is hoping Sanchez returns to form and starts belting homer after homer into the bleachers while making more contact and shaving down his strikeouts.

It’s just … nothing to be optimistic about if you’ve been following the 28-year-old closely this offseason, which a lot of fans have been doing. Sanchez still has a lot of work to do if he wants to put 2020 in the past and show the organization that he’s worthy of being the catcher of the future.

And like we said previously, we’ll only know if that’s the case after his 2021 campaign with the Yankees.

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