I’m Not Upset Gary Sanchez Signed Elsewhere, Hear Me Out

2-8-24 – By Gary Morgan – @garymo2007 on X

People love to tell me what my “job” is on here or on my podcast.

Some want me to “use my platform to tell the truth”. As long as it’s the truth they believe in of course. Others would like to see “a bit of positivity” about the team, but to me, trying to sound like anything comes across as, well, trying to sound like something, and I’m sorry, it’s just not my style.

Assumptions are always made too. Example: Me – I’m indifferent about Gary Sanchez. Someone – So 7 Million is too much for a catcher?

Me again before closing the app – Huh?

We’d have a whole lot fewer problems as a people if we’d stop and think before typing or speaking, and stop to listen or read the actual words used as opposed to trying to always go Da Vinci Code on every post.

This Gary Sanchez situation in miniature really showed me how far apart I am from a lot of fans. I mean some people were straight heated about what I saw at least as a weird fit. Maybe as you read this, I’ll do a better job of explaining what I’m really looking for this season, more than any one signing.

Let’s take it all the way back, a catching position timeline if you will.

December of 2019, One of Ben Cherington’s first decisions was to designate Elias Diaz. Blame him if you want for Diaz turning into a serviceable, All Star catcher, but I know I thought he was nothing worth keeping too, so, I’ll just back off.

November of 2021, the Pirates had a controllable Jacob Stallings. Not flashy, not great, wonderful defender, gold glove caliber even. They also had just about nothing else. Nothing close. Endy and Henry both in the system, Binz added in. And right here, they chose to move Stallings. This isn’t about the return, it’s just about the catching position. They then signed Roberto Perez, an oft injured and long in the tooth catcher with undeniable skills behind the dish. Obviously he was lost for the season, and the team did precious little to replace him.

December of 2022, the Bucs inked Austin Hedges. Same deal, same profile, more availability to play in his history. Jason Delay prepared to retire from the game was called up and stuck, but nobody believed they’d found an answer. Tyler Heineman could just as easily be in the Delay role as a matter of fact. Very similar, maybe slight edge to Delay behind the dish. Plus, Endy was going to debut and be an instant star by June right!

June of 2023, Henry Davis is called up before Endy, largely on the premise his bat couldn’t be held back, but the Pirates didn’t use him as a catcher.

July of 2023, Endy Rodriguez makes his debut and after a rough start, caught on behind the dish.

November of 2023, The Pirates announce they plan to use Henry Davis as a catcher in the following year. Fans immediately questioned how both these guys would get enough at bats, and if Henry could catch.

December of 2023, Endy injures his elbow in Winter Ball, requiring season ending surgery and missing all of 2024. Leaving Henry, Delay and newly acquired Ali Sanchez for the catching position.

January of 2024, Ben Cherington mentions catcher as a spot he could potentially want to add a player.

February of 2024, Robert Murray posts a tweet that mentions the Pirates as one team that has expressed some interest in free agent Gary Sanchez. A week later, Sanchez signs with Milwaukee for 7.1 million.

That’s it, the clinical, no emotion, no expectation timeline of where the Pirates are with the catching position.

We went from December to February with next to nobody feeling this team had to go get a starting catcher because largely they felt Henry needed to just learn on the job, to Gary Sanchez has to be here or They’ve failed.

I’ve done Q&A’s all along the way, nobody ever mentioned Gary Sanchez to me before last week. In fact, you know the name I heard most often? Jacob Stallings when Miami Non-Tendered him. I wrote myself with Endy going down they might need to look into a more established backup, but I suppose I always just felt Henry was going to have to step up.

This can’t just be about Gary Sanchez. He had a good year once he got to San Diego, but Sanchez is a journeyman for a lot of reasons. If the recency of 2023 is all you need to think he’s going to repeat it, cool. That’s up to you, but I’m not going with you. He hasn’t been a good defender in his career, and while he did better in San Diego, his numbers for his career scream outlier year in 2023, and if they’re bringing in a catcher, their history tells me that’s not the direction they go.

In fact, if we just want a guy who probably isn’t all that great of a defender but can hit, I’ll take the 1:1 pick who the team controls for 5 more years.

If you see Sanchez as a replacement for Delay or Ali Sanchez, OK, but is this a team that’s going to spend 7 million on a bench player at the catching position, backing up a player you kinda think will struggle defensively? Wouldn’t that likely be a player who himself is a clear defensive upgrade?

Are you sure you didn’t just want “someone” with a name you recognize signed? I mean, a lot of you didn’t like the last name they signed, but that’s sure what it feels like, cause this my friends is not a player to cry over “missing” on. And missing is a strong word, they could have checked in on Sanchez back in December and already moved on.

Don’t you want them to get better players?!

Of course, but I also want them to do it wisely. And I don’t mean financially, I mean they need to understand and facilitate allowing roles to be filled by kids, its not negotiable, even if it comes at the expense of a win or two. Henry catching 80 games in 2024 and proving he has, or doesn’t have the ability to me is more important than those couple of wins. Heading into next offseason, I want to know I have Henry coming back, capable or not, and Endy too. If they don’t see what they have in Henry this year, we’ll enter next offseason relying on a guy who hasn’t played in a year.

Not where I want to be.

It’s also possible, they already know they don’t think he can. If that’s the case, I still don’t want a one year stop gap, for the same reason, I don’t want to head into 2024 assuming Endy is not only going to pick up where he left off, but also evolve into an MLB hitter with no safety net.

So it’s not like I can’t see a need here, or think an upgrade would hurt, I just didn’t see Sanchez as that fit. Even if he’s the best catcher on the board in your mind, to me he just doesn’t fit the profile of a team so concerned about playing defense at the position they pissed around with a top pick over it.

Probably feels like I’m making a big deal out of one guy talking about Davis, but if you have read my stuff or listened to my shows you know, I’m all about answering questions, not creating more. Every year they waste not answering, the more cloudy they become.

It’s why bluntly put, if I had my druthers they’d have signed a top end starter for a couple years to pair with Keller, grabbed another like Perez or Gonzales and left the rest for kids to fight it out.

Again, I value culling some wins out of this batch of pitchers more than the 3-4 wins a second Perez or Gonzales could bring. But I’m still spending, just buying a better shot at wins in one slot as opposed to spreading it over two players.

They clearly don’t agree with me.

They also haven’t pronounced Roansy Contreras, Luis Ortiz, Bailey Falter and Quinn Priester complete busts headed to the glue factory. A whole lot of us have, for sure.

I can’t sit here and tell you any of those four will successfully return to form, or reach an acceptable level at all in 2024. I can’t tell you Gonzales’ arm won’t fall off, or Perez won’t prove himself a better bullpen pitcher than starter, or that Keller can handle being THE guy.

I can tell you, if we enter the next offseason with Keller, a Brubaker who hopefully shows he’s at least recovered, an Oviedo returning from UCL, and whoever the next mix of kids is who’ll be the hotness, we’ll be having the same conversations again, and this time, we’ll have the specter of Keller and Brubaker both pitching in their last seasons potentially.

Point is, how long do we want to wait to see what some of these kids can do? If Skenes, Jones, Burrows, whoever are ready this year physically, and this is just my personal preference, damn the record, get them up here and answer some questions. Don’t force auditions to September, don’t wait until next year to start getting the rookie shakes out of them. In fact, even though they didn’t want to do it, and it looked ugly, that’s very much so what Priester and Ortiz did last year. Now we see how they punch back.

It seems so far away, but when this stuff comes together you almost never expect it.

I mean, here is Zach Rymer from Bleacher report way back in 2012 in part of his season preview for the Buccos. “Pirates fans who have reservations about Burnett should relax. He was awful with the Yankees last season, but there’s no way he’s going to be that awful with the Pirates. Burnett will walk too many guys, but he’ll also post a K/9 in the 8.00-9.00 range.”

And this was before he fouled a ball off his face in a bunting drill. Ha, I remember the running gag at the office was that he did it on purpose so he wouldn’t have to pitch for the Succos! Eric Bedard was the big free agent pitcher get.

Pretty ringing praise for a guy we universally look back on as a slam dunk get that signified the franchise turning a corner. While it wound up that way, that’s certainly not what the rub was in tahn.

No, that team didn’t win, but they did answer a bunch of questions. They came in with a Pedro Alvarez who had missed most of 2011 and looked awful doing it. First base was journeyman. Catching was journeyman. Bullpen was kinda scary talented though.

This NEVER happens without these kids dominating the roster people. Never.

Despite what this team pushed out there as a goal, I need to see catcher, second base and at least two more spots in the rotation to be solidified before this season ends and solidly in line to be part of the team in 2025.

That doesn’t have room to happen if we’re signing filler like Sanchez, in my opinion. And that’s all it is, my opinion.

I’m not even selling it as Ben Cherington is smart and is totally executing my plan by leaving room and forcing kids to perform. He’s probably doing it more because his boss is cheap and it’s kinda reality he needs to develop much of whatever wins here one day.

Had they never mentioned contending for the playoffs or division, and I just sat back watching this off season play out, here’s what I’d probably tell you they’re doing.

They have all these kids and they’d like to lightly block them, but not fence them off. I’d then repeat my trope from last year, “You’ll like the roster in September better than you will in April”.

That is not where this fan base is. Nowhere near being able to hear that as anything other than ignoring a weak division and missing a shot. I get that too. It’s hard to pivot from a plan, and in baseball being bad at it or afraid to try usually makes you less an evil genius and more often a buffoon.

I can’t argue the division is right there, still might be, maybe they’re right on some of these kids, or vets. Point is to me, I want upgrades now that help beyond 2024. They haven’t agreed with me here either.

The best thing that can happen to this team and fan base is to either shock the world and pull off something seismic in a trade or signing or open Spring Training and start letting the faith placed in kids show us how smart, or, not, you are. *Insert sure to come Bob Nutting clever joke none of us have ever heard before…

Wouldn’t be the first time I saw a roster with no shot come together.

I will say this, while you rightly focus on what they don’t have, and didn’t go get, do remember there’s an interesting looking young team with options and even prospect pressure that are here too.