Gary Sanchez's back 'better,' expected to play in game Friday for the Yankees
Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez waits for batting practice during spring training in Tampa, Fla., on Feb. 13. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
CLEARWATER, Fla. — Gary Sanchez was supposed to play again on Monday after hurting his back last Friday.
Then it was Tuesday.
Now it’s this Friday.
Manager Aaron Boone made the announcement that Sanchez again was being pushed back before the Yankees took on Joe Girardi’s Phillies at Spectrum Field on Monday.
Boone said Sanchez’s lower/mid-back area was “better” on Monday. Sanchez was back in Tampa doing “catching stuff,” Boone said, but was not hitting.
Pushing his next game back is more of a scheduling thing than an injury thing, Boone indicated.
The Yankees — or some of them, anyway — are leaving Tampa on Tuesday night to drive across the state to Jupiter, where they will play Don Mattingly’s Marlins on Wednesday.
Then, after an overnight stay, the Yankees will face the Nationals in West Palm Beach before the group heads back to Tampa.
“I’m not going to play him [Tuesday],” Boone said. “So we’ll hold off on hitting him [Monday]. He probably could hit [Monday]. So he’ll probably start hitting [Tuesday]. We decided to hold off on [Sanchez playing Tuesday]. We’re going across the state the next two days. Didn’t feel like I wanted to rush him into a game. So he’ll stay back and probably catch [Adam Ottavino] and maybe some other guys on Wednesday, get live [at-bats] Thursday and then the plan would be for him to be in the lineup Friday. But I’m not real concerned about it. He’s feeling better today. Feel like if we were playing [a regular-season game], he’d be in there today.”
It all sounds good, but the worry for Yankees fans is that they already have seen several seemingly minor injuries turn into major headaches. Luis Severino is out for the season because of Tommy John surgery. Injured stars James Paxton, Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge will miss at least Opening Day.
Still, it would make little sense to rush Sanchez back behind the plate on Tuesday when he’s going to be off Wednesday and Thursday anyway.
The only “regulars” who are making the 190-mile trip to Jupiter are Miguel Andujar, Gio Urshela, Clint Frazier and backup catcher Kyle Higashioka. They will be joined by roster hopefuls Luis Cessa, Mike Tauchman, Tyler Wade and Mike Ford, and a lot of other players who probably won’t be on the Opening Day roster.
Sanchez was limited to 106 games last season and 89 the season before because of various injuries. The Yankees have three veteran catchers in camp as non-roster invitees in Chris Iannetta, Erik Kratz and former Met Josh Thole. But Boone said the backup job is Higashioka’s to lose.
“I think Higgy with where he is on our roster, he’s earned this spot, this opportunity,” Boone said. “I, and we, have a lot of confidence in him. I think somebody’s got to really take that. He’s put himself in a really good position to be that guy and I have a lot of confidence in him.”
With Sanchez’s injury history, letting Austin Romine go to the Tigers as a free agent was a risk. The drop-off in offensive potential from Sanchez to Higashioka is prodigious. Higashioka, 29, is a career .164 hitter in 56 games with the Yankees over the last three seasons.
If you’re wondering how he did with regular work at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre last season, Higashioka hit .278 with 20 home runs and a healthy .929 OPS in 70 games.
The Yankees love Higashioka’s defensive game. He also is out of options, meaning if the Yankees tried to send him down to Triple-A, another catching-hungry club could snap him up for free.
Iannetta started at catcher against the Phillies on Monday, went 0-for-3 and is hitting .412. Thole relieved him and went 0-for-1 with a walk. Kratz was in the lineup as the designated hitter.
Iannetta, 36, hit .222 in 56 games for Colorado in 2019. Kratz, 39, played in four games for the Yankees in 2017. In 2019, he hit .102 combined for the Giants and Rays in 21 games.
Thole, 33, hasn’t played in the majors since 2016.
Anthony Rieber covers sports media and business and professional sports (you know, games and trades and things). He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since Jan. 1, 2026.
