Aaron Boone is not giving Sonny Gray a personal catcher anymore.
The New York Yankees manager has Gary Sanchez set to catch Gray for Friday’s game against the Toronto Blue Jays rather than Austin Romine, who has caught Gray for many of his starts.
Boone told reporters on Friday that Gray and Sanchez need to find success together.
Aaron Boone said that he has no interest in giving Sonny Gray a personal catcher, which is part of the reason Gary Sanchez is catching tonight. “We feel like it’s a relationship that needs to work.”
— Bryan Hoch (@BryanHoch) April 20, 2018
Gray has made three starts on the season. He has a 3.60 ERA in two starts with Romine catching him. He gave up six runs over three innings (18.00 ERA) in the start where Sanchez caught him. That start also happened to be against a tougher hitting team in Boston, compared to his other two starts, which came against Toronto and Baltimore.
Gray came over from the A’s in a trade last year and made 11 starts for the Yankees. The numbers last season showed he was more successful pitching to Romine compared to Sanchez.
These stats were shared by USA Today last year:
“In eight games with Sanchez as his catcher, Gray had a 4.63 ERA and yielded an opponents’ on-base plus slugging percentage of .767. With Romine catching him for three starts, Gray had a 1.45 ERA while opposing hitters managed a meager .543 OPS against him.”
Is it a fluke or not? We’ll see based on how Gray does with Sanchez behind the plate. Certainly Sanchez’s bat is a big asset, and that’s a major reason why Boone wants to make this work.
