Happy Birthday, Babe Ruth!
Eighty-nine years after his final MLB game, the Bambino’s legendary presence is still unrivaled in baseball. So let’s add to it today by celebrating one of his most spectacular, although sometimes neglected, accomplishments.
This has nothing to do with any of the Sultan of Swat’s famous home runs. Instead, we’ll watch The Babe catch a fly ball.
Dropped from hundreds of feet up.
From a moving aircraft.
According to the narrator, Ruth risked fracturing his skull if he misread one of the falling baseballs. But, of course, this is Babe Ruth, so he made the grab with remarkable ease.
On July 22, 1926, Ruth became the first person to catch a baseball thrown from an airplane. The accomplishment, as described in this piece about Ruth’s influential agent, landed the slugger on the front page of The New York Times. It’s unclear whether this video was shot on the same day, but that doesn’t take away from its brilliance.
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Gary Sánchez waits again.
Pitchers and catchers reporting is growing closer every day. Despite this, a number of notable free agents remain unsigned. Jordan Montgomery and Blake Snell, two left-handed pitchers, require a home, while Matt Chapman and Cody Bellinger are waiting elsewhere on the diamond. Of course, a lot of smaller-scale free agents have been signed so far, but Gary Sánchez, former Yankees catcher, is not among them.
Sánchez’s 2016 debut was seismic, but it was also over a decade ago. In exchange for Josh Donaldson and Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Minnesota received the right-handed slugger. He had one more year before entering the open market following a few bad seasons in a succession. His year with the Twins was not very impressive, and he entered free agency as a big ol’ question mark, waiting well into the winter (and until Opening Day) to go anywhere. It was a disappointing turn in Sánchez’s complex career history, which I also explored last offseason. This season simply adds to the ongoing story, so I thought I’d update the Sánchez chronology once more.
Sánchez eventually signed a minor league contract with the Giants on April 1 of last year, but he only stayed in the system for a month before being released without ever playing in the majors. A week later, the Mets took a chance on the veteran, who appeared in a few of major league games. He returned to the market a week later. The Kraken joined with another team at the end of May, the third time since opening day. This time, it was San Diego, where he would finally start to make a noise.
With the Padres, Sánchez hit 19 home runs in 72 games (more than he did in 128 games the previous year) and had a 115 wRC+ while slashing.218/.292/.500. It’s not particularly impressive, but it is a reasonably productive stat line. And that appears to be where things become complicated for Sánchez. After two years of bursting onto the scene, followed by a few down years (which may not have been as horrible as they felt), this year emphasizes the concept that he’s probably alright at this stage of his career.
With his finest baseball in years under his belt, I feel more comfortable saying this than I did last year. In one way or another, he remains Gary Sánchez, prone to the odd difficult-to-watch slump as well as hitting baseballs harder than most are capable of.
Sánchez was still toward the top of the totem pole for maximum exit velocity, and his other quality of contact measures were consistent with his expectations. Notably, he spent 63 of his 72 games with San Diego behind the plate. Now, there was only a half-season of catching data, so there’s not much weight to it, but he appeared to do a good job behind the plate. He was still able to use his powerful arm to catch base stealers, and his framing was above average. Overall, he had a nice year given his limited time.
MLB Next Game: New York Yankees
Let’s look at the larger view, even if it’s a little unrealistic. Sánchez has been seventh among all catchers in fWAR since 2016, and 12th in wRC+ with 110. Even after excluding his two greatest seasons in 2016 and 2017, he is still ranked 11th in fWAR among catchers since 2019. Given his career’s unusual trajectory, his positive times are masked by his controversial stat lines, while his bad years are amplified for similar reasons.
In terms of his search for a deal, it’s difficult to think that no one is ready to take a chance on the hard-hitting 31-year-old. Mitch Garver, a slugging catcher, recently signed a two-year, $24 million contract with the Mariners. Garver has performed slightly better, but he is also two years older, will largely DH, and has only featured in 100 games once in his career, in 2018. Even Victor Caratini and Tom Murphy have signed multiyear contracts this offseason.
It is evident that trend direction is very important, but let me present a thinking experiment. If, for example, Jorge Alfaro, a 31-year-old catcher on the market, had hit 19 home runs in 72 games with a 115 wRC+, he would have signed a good contract by now.
There is, of course, no way to know this type of thing, just as there is no way to know what to expect from Gary Sánchez at any given time. However, given his recent resurgence, it appears reasonable to expect him to contribute. Even if it translates to an average-ish bat with big time pop who can catch when necessary, that doesn’t sound horrible. And, if that’s the case, I’d bet he’d help whichever team took the chance, just like he did in San Diego.
