Gary Sanchez is a baseball catcher from Dominica who made his professional debut for the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball (MLB) in 2015 after being ranked among the top prospects in baseball the previous year.
Since his debut, Gary’s career has been on the rise and so has his fame. In 2016, the Dominican player was crowned the American League’s Rookie of the Month and also got the Player of the Month Award for August 2016. His first All-Star came the following year (2017).
Sanchez recorded 19 home runs in 45 games, to be named the fastest player to reach that mark in modern baseball history, thus, he ended the 2016 season as the second in Rookie of the Year despite playing only 53 games.
Below is all you should know about the 2016 record-breaking rookie, who is also popular on social media with the hashtag #IAmGary.
Gary Sanchez Bio
The young Dominican catcher was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic( a city where he was also raised) on December 2, 1992. His parents divorced when Sánchez was very young, thus, he and his four siblings (three brothers and a sister) were raised by their mother – Orquidia Herrera and their grandmother Agustina Pena.
The kids, however, got to see their father once in a while. One of Gary’s brothers, Miguel Sánchez, played baseball for the Seattle Mariner’s organization.
Carrer, Stats
Sanchez’s career actually began in July 2009, after the New York Yankees signed him on as an international free agent. He made his debut appearance playing for the Gulf Coast Yankees, in August 2010, he was promoted to the Staten Island Yankees of the Class A-Short Season New York–Penn League and ended the 2010 season with .329/.393/.543 hits, 8 home runs, and 43 runs batted in (RBIs) in 47 games.
At the end of the season, Gary was ranked among the top prospects in baseball, rated second-best prospect in the Yankees organization, and named 30th best prospect overall by Baseball America. He spent the 2011 season with the Charleston RiverDogs of the Class A South Atlantic League. Although he played just 82 games with them before suffering a finger injury, Gary Sánchez still ended the season recording .256/.335/.485 hits, 17 home runs, and 52 RBIs.
The 2012 season saw him playing for Charleston and he was later promoted to play for the Tampa Yankees of the Class A-Advanced Florida State League. As expected, Cary’s impressive play continued to manifest with his new team. He played with them for the first quarter of the 2013 season before being promoted to the Trenton Thunder of the Class AA Eastern League in the second quarter of the season after batting .254 with 13 home runs and 61 RBIs.
After the 2013 season, he was named among the Yankees’ 40-man roster. For the 2015 season, he started playing for Trenton and was later chosen to represent the Yankees at the 2015 All-Star Futures Game, after the game he was promoted to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders of the Class AAA International League, where he recorded his first at-bat. This was also his last play in the minor league.
Gary made his first major league debut as a pinch-hitter. That season he was included on the Yankees’ 25-man roster for the 2015 American League (AL) Wild Card Game, he was later assigned to the Arizona Fall League (AFL) after the season. He led in home runs and was soon named the Fall Stars Game Most Valuable Player, as well as the second-best prospect in the AFL by Baseball America.
Sánchez did so well as a catcher that season that the Yankees had no issue trading fellow catcher John Ryan Murphy during the offseason. In the 2016 season, Gary recorded his first major league hit, his first major league home run, and 3 singles, he also had his first two home run games against the Toronto Blue Jays.
After hitting four home runs with a .523 average, Gary was named the AL Player of the Week and he also became the first player in MLB history with at least 11 home runs and 31 hits in just his first 23 career games. A week later, he was again named AL Player of the Week for the second straight week, the following week, MLB named him AL Player of the Month and Rookie of the Month.
By September 2016, Gary Sanchez recorded his 18th and 19th home runs in his 45th game, breaking records as the fastest player to reach 19 home runs in the modern era. He ended the season with a .299 batting average, 20 home runs, and 42 RBIs, he also finished the season second in the voting for AL Rookie of the Year, behind Michael Fulmer.
He finished the 2017 season batting .278/.345/.531 with 33 home runs, 90 RBIs, 20 doubles, 131 hits, 40 walks, and 79 runs scored. At the end of the season, he received his first Silver Slugger Award as the best hitting catcher in the American League. In 2018, Sánchez hit his first career walk-off home run off of Fernando Rodney, leading the Yankees to a 4-3 win.
Gary Sanchez Wife (Sahaira)
Gary Sanchez is happily married to Sahaira, and they are parents to one adorable daughter named Sarah.
The skilled player said the birth of his daughter transformed him from a player going through the motions early in his professional career, to one who is lauded for his work ethic.
Height, Weight, And Other Facts
Gary meets the average height of a professional baseball player which is 6’2 in. He stands at 6″2 (1.88m) and weighs 104 kg.
He has a strong social media influence, recording huge followership on both his Twitter and Instagram accounts with the hashtag #IAmGary.
Sanchez goes by the nickname “The Kraken” given to him back in 2016 by Yankee’s former General Manager Brian Cashman.
