Yankees catcher Kyle Higashioka making case for more playing time with fast start

CLEVELAND — Kyle Higashioka is making a push to be something more than Gerrit Cole’s personal catcher.

Much more.

Which might affect Gary Sanchez’s playing time.

The backup catcher, who became Cole’s preferred backstop last September and in the postseason, is one of the few Yankees not in a slump at the plate.

Manager Aaron Boone hinted late Thursday night that Higashioka could see more action after he went 2-for-4, including his third homer of the season, in the Yankees’ 6-3 victory over Cleveland. The 31-year-old is 6-for-17 (.353) with a 1.476 OPS in nine 2021 games through Thursday, with five of those six hits going for extra bases.

Higashioka — who caught Domingo German Thursday when the righthander shook off a miserable 26-pitch first inning in which he allowed three runs (two earned) and went on to throw five scoreless — was not in the starting lineup Friday but is all but certain to be catching Saturday night when Cole is scheduled to take his turn.

"Look, I’d even go back to last year and a lot of the conversations about him getting in there and getting to play some in the playoffs is about his performance," Boone said Thursday, referencing last October when Higashioka caught five of the Yankees’ seven playoff games. "I mean, he’s a really good catcher. We’ve seen the bat continue to improve and improve, and he’s creating more opportunity for himself."

Higashioka’s batting average and OPS are tops, by far, on a club that at the moment has no other hitters performing consistently. That includes Sanchez, who entered Friday's game hitting .200 with two homers and a .676 OPS in 14 games.

"It's good to see [Higashioka] playing that way and continuing to build and grow in his game and in his confidence," Boone said Friday.

Throughout the offseason and spring training, the Yankees took pains to say Sanchez still was the No. 1 catcher, with Boone saying early in the spring that there would be no personal catcher situation with Cole. And Sanchez caught Cole plenty in the spring — in bullpens, simulation games and Grapefruit League games — and then on Opening Day.

But Sanchez hasn’t caught Cole since and a wise man would bet the under — whatever the under is — on the number of times that battery connects the rest of the season, regardless of the accompanying verbiage whenever the topic is raised.

The numbers don’t tell the entire story, but going into Friday, Yankees’ pitchers had a 2.67 ERA with a .622 opponents’ OPS in 54 total innings throwing to Higashioka, compared to a 3.67 ERA with a .687 OPS, in 108 total innings when throwing to Sanchez. Cole is 2-1 with a 1.82 ERA in four starts, including 2-1 with a 1.40 ERA over his last three starts paired with Higashioka. Cole has struck out 31 and walked one in that three-game stretch (Cole’s 39 strikeouts through his first four starts are the most by any Yankees pitcher in his first four games of a season, surpassing Masahiro Tanaka’s 35 in 2014).

For his part, Higashioka, among the longest tenured Yankees in the organization after being drafted in the seventh round in 2008, has nimbly avoided inflaming things whenever asked about his own playing time compared to Sanchez.

"We have a very professional mindset where we're willing to do whatever it takes to make this team successful," Higashioka said early in the spring when the subject was raised, not for the first or last time. "So whatever role I'm put in that the manager thinks is going to give us the best chance to win, I think that's what we're happy for."

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.