One man has burst onto the scene in this new look Yankee lineup and made an impact that is for the ages, His name? Gary Sanchez. Sanchez was signed by the New York Yankees as an international free agent on June 20, 2009 for $2.5 million. Sanchez started his career within the Yankees organization in 2010 when he was considered as one of the top prospects in all of baseball. By 2012 he was ranked as the #4 prospect in the Yankees organization by Baseball America and in the middle of the season he received a call up from the Charleston River Dogs to the Tampa Yankees.
Sanchez then made his way up the ranks in the minor leagues fairly quickly. By 2015 he was selected to represent the New York Yankees in the 2015 Futures Game during All-Star weekend which is where he really made a name for himself.
After the Futures Game the Yankees called up Sanchez to their AAA affiliate The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Railriders where he made a quick impact their by hitting a home run in his very first at bat. Sanchez would then finish the 2015 season as a Major league player when he made his debut on October 3rd as a pinch hitter and would go 0-2.
After the season the Yankees decided to send Sanchez to the Arizona Fall League to work on some things during the offseason to make him Major League material for the 2016 season.
Sanchez would absolutely rake in the Fall League, He led the AFL in home runs and was also selected as the Fall Stars Game MVP. This strong showing in the Arizona fall league lead the Yankees to trade former backup catcher John Ryan Murphy to the Twins because they felt like Sanchez would be ready to take over in due time.
We would not see Sanchez in a Major League uniform again until May where he was called up for one game and went 0-for-4. Sanchez had a very successful 71 games in AAA this season batting over .280 with 10 home runs and 50 RBI.
This led the Yankees to call him up again for a more permanent stay on August 3, 2016 where he recorded his first Major League hit which was a single off of Mets RP Hansel Robles.
Things would only improve from this point. Since being called up on August 3 Sanchez is currently batting .370 with 6 home runs to his credit. Which also includes a game on August 10th against the Toronto Blue Jays where Sanchez recorded a game where he went 4-for-5 with his first MLB home run and 3 singles.
The future definitely looks bright for Mr. Sanchez and hopefully he can keep it up for years to come!
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