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The San Francisco Giants have reportedly agreed to terms on a minor league deal that will reunite them with catcher Hector Sanchez. Sanchez, of course, spent the first five years of his major league career in San Francisco, after signing with them as an amateur free agent in 2006 and debuting in 2011.
As Grant wrote in his farewell post in 2015:
When the Giants declined to offer Hector Sanchez arbitration, they weren’t exactly ruling out a reunion. For the right money, in the right situation, it wasn’t inconceivable that they would consider bringing him back. It never hurts to stash another catcher in Triple-A.
It took two years, but they got there in the end.
In the meantime, Sanchez signed with the Chicago White Sox as a free agent after the 2015 season, but was waived, then claimed off of waivers by the San Diego Padres shortly after the 2016 season began and spent two years there.
Though his numbers with the Padres weren’t great, they certainly were great against the Giants.
As Alex Pavlovic points out, “In two years with the Padres, Sanchez got 36 at-bats against the Giants and hit five homers and drove in 14 runs.”
His four homeruns against the Giants last season alone were more than the vast majority of Giants players individually hit all season. Against anyone.
Of course, he will not be playing with the Giants to start, as they are set at the moment, having just signed Nick Hundley as Buster Posey’s back-up. A role that Sanchez is all too familiar with. So he will be joining the ranks of the Sacramento River Cats.
One could speculate about this news in conjunction with the news that Tim Lincecum is looking to get back into playing, considering that Sanchez ended up primarily catching for Lincecum. And I wouldn’t blame anyone for doing so, it’s been a very, very slow off-season and the thought of watching that battery reunite in Sacramento is a very fun thought.
But it is just that, a thought, and I will not be reduced to click-bait in this time of slim pickings of baseball content. For now, we will see Sanchez and Trevor Brown in Sacramento, and that’s almost the same thing, if you tilt your head right.