The Cubs traded minor league catcher Ali Sánchez to the Marlins, tweets Tommy Birch of the Des Moines Register. In response to the MLB.com transaction tracker, Miami despatched money in return.
Sánchez was not on Chicago’s 40-man roster. He received’t instantly take a spot on Miami’s. He’ll head to Triple-A Jacksonville in the interim, becoming a member of his third group of the season within the course of. The Venezuela native signed a considerably shocking huge league contract with the Pirates final offseason. Pittsburgh outrighted him off the 40-man roster on the finish of Spring Coaching, sending him again to free company. Sánchez inked a non-roster cope with the Cubs every week into the season and had been taking part in for Triple-A Iowa.
He appeared in 41 video games, hitting .240/.338/.388 in 148 journeys to the plate. That’s a step down from the .311/.375/.492 batting line he’d posted with Arizona’s Triple-A affiliate in 2023. Reno, the place the D-Backs’ high farm workforce performs, is among the sport’s most favorable hitting environments. Sánchez, a usually gentle hitter, linked on 11 homers in 67 video games there. He hit three longballs with Iowa.
Whereas he doesn’t deliver a lot energy to the desk, Sánchez has first rate contact expertise. He has drawn walks in 12.2% of his plate appearances on the season in opposition to an 18.9% strikeout price. He’s typically considered a succesful defender, although he solely minimize down six of 46 tried basestealers with Iowa.
The Cubs have gotten nearly nothing out of their catching duo of Miguel Amaya and Yan Gomes. They nonetheless opted in opposition to bringing Sánchez up. Chicago signed Tomás Nido to a main league contract whereas designating Gomes for project this morning.
Miami is among the solely groups whose catchers have been much less productive than the Amaya/Gomes pairing. Marlins catchers — nearly solely Christian Bethancourt and Nick Fortes — have hit an MLB-worst .155/.192/.237 over 232 plate appearances. Miami isn’t going to expend a lot to improve the place in a misplaced season. Sánchez might play his approach into an MLB look with a productive displaying in Jacksonville. Bethancourt, Fortes and Jhonny Pereda are the catchers on the 40-man roster.
