White Sox Cut Yolmer Sanchez From Team Despite Winning a Gold Glove

Major League Baseball has 750 roster spots. Let's just say the supply of players exceeds the demand despite the fluidity in team rosters with injuries and players not living up to expectations. Roster spots are tenuous. Unless you are in Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, Gerrit Cole, Stephen Strasburg or Anthony Rendon territory, it can be hard for a big league baseball player to know where he stands from one day to the next.


Consider the case of Yolmer Sanchez. He's been a part of the Chicago White Sox organization since 2009 when he signed as an international free agent at the age of 16. The Venezuelan born Sanchez made his big league debut in 2014 and has been an everyday player since the 2016 season. He led the AL in triples in 2018 with 10. In 2019, Sanchez earned a Gold Glove for his defensive work at second base.


You would think that winning a Gold Glove would be sufficient to keep your roster spot. But as Johnny Carson would tell Ed McMahon, "You would be wrong bourbon breath." The White Sox have put Sanchez on waivers effectively cutting him from the team. Although Sanchez would lead the AL in defensive runs saved among second basemen, he also had the lowest slugging percentage in MLB (.321).


Sanchez is eligible for arbitration and the Chisox would have had to pay him at least $6.2 million in 2020 (he earned $4,625,000 in 2019). So the White Sox determined Sanchez's lack of offensive production negated his defensive contributions to speak nothing of his positive presence in the Chisox clubhouse. Sanchez can also play shortstop, third base and the outfield. But I guess the White Sox don't think a utility player is worth $6 million a year.


In an era dominated by the home run, one wonders if today's White Sox would have kicked Hall of Fame second baseman Nellie Fox to the curb. I'm not saying that Sanchez is in Fox's class. Fox hit over .300 six times and led the AL in hits four times in his 19-year big league career. But Fox never hit more than 6 home runs a season. I suspect if Sanchez had hit 30 home runs and had half the defensive efficiency he would still be on the Chisox roster.


I can only hope that one of the 29 other teams can see Sanchez's value be it as an everyday Gold Glove caliber player or as a utility man. Given that there are free agents who will be signed for well in excess of $200 million, $6 million seems a small price to pay for someone who can catch the ball and keep the other team from scoring. Whoever does sign Yolmer Sanchez will see dividends which might have gone the way of the White Sox in 2020.