Keidel: Gary Sanchez's Most Impressive Feat? Quickly Restoring Optimism In Yankees Fan Base
By Jason Keidel
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This will shock the Yankees, their fans and those who read this space with any regularity.
I was wrong.
Before the MLB trade deadline, I said that detonating the Yankees' nuclear bullpen was not only counterintuitive, but also bad business.
While many of us misguided folks said the Bombers are only allowed to reload, the Yankees indeed have the right to rebuild. In fact, they had a duty to do so.
And Exhibit A is their glittering new catcher, who was merely promoted and not acquired.
While Gary Sanchez goes all Roy Hobbs on the sport, his binary impact has the media and the masses drooling. Sanchez provides not just the illusion that the Yankees are World Series contenders this year, but also the reality that they are much closer to future contention than they were the day before he was called to the majors.
The Yankees are now six games over .500 for the first time this season. They have won 13 of 20 games, including four series in a row. And though the precise fruits from those deadline deals -- like Gleyber Torres, Clint Frazier, Billy McKinney and Justus Sheffield -- aren't yet lighting up the Big Apple as Sanchez has, all eight players acquired in July give the Yankees their best farm system since the 1990s.
In a sense, the fact that homegrown Yanks such as Sanchez, Aaron Judge and Tyler Austin are making such swift marks on the club gives fans even more reason to look toward 2017 with frothing anticipation.
And there's the karmic tax the Yankees have paid in full by jamming the eject button on Aroldis Chapman. Just ask the fine folks in Chicago, who are outraged not only by his refusal to talk about his domestic violence incident but his refusal to donate time or money to organizations that address the plague of violence against women.
Last Sunday's New York Times featured a telling article about the obdurate Chapman, who has chafed the natives so much that a movement was started by a female fan, Caitlin Swieca, who now donates $10 to domestic violence awareness after every Chapman save.
Her gesture has spawned a litany of like-minded fans to do the same, raising over $11,000 so far, with the help of the Domestic Violence Legal Clinic. Chapman makes more than that every time he steps on the mound, of course, yet it doesn't occur to him to appease his critics with a single donation.
Chapman hardly seems like a swell chap. And yes, there is an ambient effect to bringing unsavory characters into your locker room.
So not only did you rid yourself of a bad spiritual influence, you got three prospects -- Torres, McKinney, and Rashad Crawford -- who could be on the team for many more years than Chapman planned to be here.
Then there's Sanchez, who hit an absurd 11 homers in his first 86 career at-bats. He's now slipped to a .374 batting average with 21 RBIs, 20 runs scored and a .441 on-base percentage in 99 at-bats in 2016. Maybe he won't post Ruthian numbers forever, and he does nothing to address the Yankees' dubious pitching staff. But he's opened a hopeful portal for fans, through which his gifted, former peers in the minors can soon join him.
LISTEN: Girardi Sings Gary Sanchez's Praises On WFAN
And while we miss the Evil Empire days, the years of missives and binges, when George Steinbrenner would make it rain on every epic free agent on the market, the main reason those Joe Torre teams won was the uniquely fertile farm system that spawned the Core Four, which was watered over the next decade with high-end mercenaries.
The loss of King George -- which was felt way beyond the wallet -- plus the dried-up farm system, made for a solemn baseball alchemy. The Yankees went from perennial playoff contenders to pretenders. Instead of having their mail forwarded to October, the Yankees were reduced to variables around the deadline, flaunting trade bait in July.
Now the Yankees are younger and more exciting, with more victories and vitality than they've had in some time. And if they somehow leapfrog the Orioles, Tigers, Astros, etc., and bag that last wild-card spot, they will see a superb, premature return on an already sound investment in their future.
Sanchez, more than anyone, represents more than his stats. His Herculean month in the majors has been more than a fleeting, cinematic run of long balls. He's an emblem of hope, of a youth movement that may take time to mature, but nudges the needle in the proper direction -- upward.
Follow Jason on Twitter at @JasonKeidel
