2023 Padres Season Review: Gary Sanchez

2023 Regular Season Statistics

1.7 fWAR, 75 G, .217 AVG, .288 OBP, .492 SLG, 111 wRC+, 33 R, 47 RBI, 19 HR

Positives From This Season

Oh did the San Diego Padres need Gary Sanchez or what? Austin Nola was hitting .130 through May 30, which was the date Sanchez was activated by the team. The Padres hadn’t had an offensive first catcher in forever and the lineup needed more thump in it.

Well, Sanchez provided that. The former New York Yankee drove in 15 runs and had a .981 OPS through his first 13 games with San Diego. New York Mets fans were wondering where the heck this guy was for them before they DFAd him but Padres fans were glad they had him.

Sanchez’s OPS actually wasn’t amazing in June and July (under .760) but it jumped up to .865 in his final 23 games of 2023 before suffering a fractured wrist via hit by pitch in early September.

Nola wasn’t scaring anyone from stealing second or third base but Sanchez threw out ten runners in 63 games behind the plate. Sanchez is a free agent this winter so it’ll be interesting to see if he lands a multi-year deal or not with San Diego or another franchise.

Negatives From This Season

Sanchez struggled more against righties (.194 AVG, 49 K, .688 OPS) than against lefties and there were stretches during the season where he’d go seven or eight games without driving in a runner. Slumps happen so I’m not trying to make it that big of a deal but that stood out when I took a look at his game logs.

Sanchez being out for the final 2+ weeks was costly, especially once Luis Campusano also went down because that meant Brett Sullivan had to play every day.