Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Hot Stove Update: Giants Sign Yolmer Sanchez


As the Hot Stove fired up in back in November, Farhan Zaidi said one of his offseason goals was to find a left-handed bat who could play middle infield.  Well, he finally signed a switch-hitting 2B today, to a minor league contract, of course.  Yolmer Sanchez was released by the White Sox this fall because they did not want to pay him arbitration level wages.  Sanchez is a good defender at 2B and 3B.  Here's the problem:  Sanchez has no stick!  Over the past 3 seasons with the White Sox, who play their home games in a hitter-friendly stadium, Sanchez has seen his OPS drop from .732 to .678 to .638.  Just for comparison sake, here is Joe Panik's OPS's from the last 3 seasons playing his home games in a pitcher-friendly park:  .733, .639, .651.  Oh, you say, but Yolmer Sanchez is a much better defender than Panik and will at least make up for his wretched offense with sparkling defense.  Uh, maybe if you think a UZR/150 of 5.0 is a significant upgrade over 2.8, OK.

Even more baffling than the signing itself(hey!  It's a minor league deal so no risk, right?) is the comment in MLBTR that Sanchez actually turned down major league offers because he wanted a chance to compete for a starting job.  I'll let you chew on that one for awhile.

4 comments:

  1. and the Cubs sign Souza for 1 year for 1m with 2m in incentives...
    Souza was a name I thought we might take a bet on. I would have been OK with that.

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  2. According to Pass, Sanchez will battle for playing time with Donovan Solano and Maricio Dubon at 2nd base. Dubon will also get starts at shortstop spelling Crawford and maybe center field. All I know is I would like to see Maricio Dubon get a lot of playing time somewhere.

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  3. The "good defender" won a Gold Glove last year. He surely is worth a look on a minor league contract.

    Wonder if he has an opt-out clause if he doesn't make the 26-man roster

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  4. And now Sandoval - do you think Longoria is going somewhere?

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