The likely starting catcher for the New York Yankees next season will require shoulder surgery to repair a lingering injury on his non-throwing arm.
According to Lindsey Adler of The Athletic on Twitter, New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman confirmed that Gary Sanchez will soon undergo shoulder surgery on his left shoulder. Sanchez has had issues with his non-throwing shoulder since 2017 and he has been receiving cortisone shots to treat the injury.
However, after recently further aggravating the injury during offseason workouts in Tampa, he will need to soon undergo surgery in order to fully repair the issue. Cashman confirmed that the recovery time following Sanchez operation is roughly three months, so he is expected to be available on opening day.
After playing in 122 games during his first full season in 2017, Sanchez was only able to play in 89 games during the 2018 season. This caused the Yankees to lean heavily on Austin Romine in numerous stretches of the season. If there are any setbacks during the recovery from shoulder surgery for Sanchez, Romine could end up as the opening day starting catcher.
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Through 77 games in 2018, Romine put together a career high 42 runs batted in alongside a career high 22 extra base hits. In the games Sanchez was able to play, he put together 53 RBI and 35 XBHs. Even though Sanchez is capable of much more production, Romine is a very capable replacement option. This will allow Sanchez to be patient in his recovery if he is not feeling one-hundred percent healthy by the end of Spring Training.
Nonetheless, this creates further worry about how Sanchez will perform in 2019. Following a 90 RBI and 55 XBH effort in 2017 with an .876 on-base plus slugging percentage, he was only able to put together the aforementioned RBI and XBHs with a .697 OPS in 2018.
However, as Sanchez proved during his All-Star season in 2017, he has the ability to completely take over a game offensively. He showed this ability in-game 2 of the 2018 American League Division Series when he hit 2 HRs alongside 4 RBI. This offensive potential will give Sanchez plenty of chances to prove himself once again during the 2019 season.
Despite a poor showing in the 2018 regular season, Sanchez still put together a .333/.429/1.000 slash line at Fenway Park with 3 HRs, 3 2Bs, and 8 RBI. As the Boston Red Sox are now going to be the defending World Series Champions, the Yankees will be heavily counting on Sanchez against their long-time rivals. This will be especially true during all of the tough matchups against the left-handed duo of Chris Sale and David Price as well.