3 most valuable New York Yankees who could be traded at the deadline

Speaking of hot streaks, Sanchez is coming off a stretch (June 8-29, 18 games) where he hit eight home runs and drove in 17 with a 1.122 OPS. Over his last 30 games (May 27-Saturday), he’s hitting .299/.387/.649 (1.037 OPS) with nine home runs, seven doubles and 21 RBI. The times of being benched for Kyle Higashioka appear to be done.

Gauged strictly by OPS, with the smallest sample size (47 games-197 plate appearances), July has been the worst month of Sanchez’s career (.476 OPS). By comparison August (1.011 OPS) has been the best month of his career, with 37 home runs over 390 plate appearances.

After his rough run in 2020, the Yankees were reportedly open to trading Sanchez last offseason. Keeping him may have come down to simply not being able to sign an upgrade (J.T. Realmuto? Yadier Molina?), and he’s still heading into arbitration for the final time next winter. At least now, and for now, they wouldn’t be trading him at the absolute low-point in his value.

Having to turn to Higashioka as their every day catcher would not be appealing for the Yankees regardless of their rest-of-season circumstance, and there’s not a major league-ready prospect in the pipeline to step in. But if there’s an opportunity to sell nicely high on Sanchez, and perhaps bring back a catcher who can step in, it has to be taken.