Yankees: 5 fatal flaws that could come back to bite them
By Tim Boyle
3. The Yankees may get nothing offensively from catcher
Finally, the Yankees decided to part ways with Gary Sanchez. It’s not worth criticizing this part of the decision. The time had come. He had more chances than most would have gotten. Poor defense and a weakening bat forced them to move on.
What they replaced him with, however, appears to be a black hole on offense.
Kyle Higashioka has been the backup in the Bronx for many years. While many sports talk radio callers have been screaming for him to start plenty in recent seasons, it’s just not logical. He is the definition of a backup catcher. A fine player to have, it doesn’t work when all of your catchers are weak hitters.
The Yankees managed to bring in Ben Rortvedt in the Sanchez trade, but he is yet another defense-first catcher. Shortly before Opening Day, the Yankees acquired yet another player fitting this profile: Jose Trevino.
It’s fine if your catcher is a weak hitter. It’s the case for most clubs. For the Yankees, they appear to have three backups in the mix. When the rest of the offense is slumping, it’s going to kill a lot of rallies at the bottom of the order when you can only send up a guy batting .210.
This issue dates back to the Yankees’ faith that Sanchez would figure things out. Handcuffed this offseason into the options they ended up with, they may need to try addressing this at the trade deadline or wait until the offseason.