Gary Sanchez, aka "The Kraken"

A few years ago, if you would have asked any Yankees fan who their franchise player is, they wouldve said the name Gary Sanchez. Fast forward to october 2020, and fans are calling for the Yankees to bench the once beloved Sanchez for a 50 wRC+ hitter, Kyle Higashioka.

Why would the Yankees bench Gary Sanchez?

Well to start, I want to say that I am a very big believer in the talent of Gary Sanchez even though he has been through some hearty struggles. Gary Sanchez is another player who has been heavily affected by the batting average epidemic

By purely looking at Gary's 2016/'17 stats its undeniable how much raw talent he has, but its also undeniable that he has not been that player for the past few seasons. Gary was the 2nd fastest person to 100 home runs in MLB history behind future HOFer Ryan Howard, and had the most hme runs in his first 300 AB's of any catcher ever. Even though Gary has been injury plagued, and has a ridiculously high strikout rate, and struggled mightly in his last 3 "seasons", he is still one of the most talented catchers ever, and benching him for a far worse hitter is insane. Gary has also been one of the most unlucky hitters in MLB history this year! The harder you hit the baseball the less likely you are to be out, and Gary Sanchez hits the ball very very hard. This year, even though it is a small sample size and his worst year in the MLB, his hard hit rate is 50% compared to a league average 35.3%. Many Yankee fans have lost faith in who once was going to be the greatest catcher of all time, but they should not lose all hope because talent like that does ot just vanish into thin air, and we need to give Gary one more full year to get his last chance. However, its possible, but unlikely that Gary just does not have it any more, and I think if he has another awful 2021 season (if he can stay healthy) it might be time to worry about Gary.

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