New York Yankees: Teixeira Says You Walk Sanchez with Ruth on Deck
By Jason Burke
The New York Yankees youth movement has taken the baseball world by storm. Of course it has. They play in New York City. But Mark Texieira’s comments about rookie catcher Gary Sanchez show that the level of excitement is real, even among players.
Four players have hit nine home runs in their first 21 big league games. Gary Sanchez is one of those four. This power surge, plus the fact that Sanchez is batting .389 with a .450 OBP over his first 72 at-bats led the Seattle Mariners to walk the 23-year-old intentionally on Wednesday–twice. The man hitting behind him, Mark Teixeira, has hit 404 home runs over 14 seasons which is 55th all-time.
When asked about the situation, Teixeira joked about his low batting average and said, “Shoot, if Babe Ruth is hitting behind him, you intentionally walk him. I mean, he is as hot as any player I have played with in my entire career. You just don’t see guys doing what he is doing. I don’t care how old he is.”
Sanchez is so hot that his career wRC+ currently stands at 241, which is completely sustainable. Since 2000, that trumps all rookies with at least 70 plate appearances by a wide margin, with Jose Abreu‘s 2014 campaign coming closest at 167. Granted, he played nearly an entire season’s worth of games.
Over that same time period among all players with at least 70 plate appearances, Barry Bonds comes the closest (986 games) to matching the hot start of Sanchez, putting up a 203 wRC+, which is completely ridiculous, especially over such a long period of time. That’s the kind of streak Sanchez is on. A roided-out Barry Bonds going-for-the-home-run-record kind of streak.
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His nine homers ranks him at number 15 among rookies this season already, and with another 72 at-bats, Sanchez could climb all the way to third on the list, sitting behind Trevor Story (27) and Corey Seager (22).
It may be insane to think that a player that has appeared in so few games could have a legitimate shot at the AL Rookie of the Year, but compared to the NL field, the AL has no clear frontrunner this season.
The numerous Twins prospects haven’t panned out, although Max Kepler will likely garner some attention, and Tyler Naquin has been a solid contributor for the Cleveland Indians as they look to make the postseason, but my guess is that folks haven’t heard about him enough. Sanchez already has an fWAR of 1.8, which ranks 7th among rookies, and only behind Naquin (2.1) for position players.
As far as pitchers go, Michael Fulmer of the Tigers has the best shot with the highest WAR (2.4) and the scoreless streak from earlier in the season. Behind him, Chris Devenski of the Astros ranks second with a 1.9.
The big names that were expected to be in the running haven’t performed as some had hoped, but some of the names that aren’t supposed to be in the discussion have interjected their way there, and if Gary Sanchez can continue at close to this rate for another five weeks, it would be hard not to give him the nod.
So yeah, you walk Sanchez to get to Babe Ruth.