The Gary Sanchez Era Shows How The Mets Have Changed Under Steve Cohen

Gary Sanchez’s Mets tenure lasted all of six at-bats, tying him with the likes of Al Pedrique and Gary Thurman for 801st place on the team’s all-time list — one at-bat behind Jed Lowrie! — and leaving him 5,992 at-bats shy of tying David Wright for the franchise record.

But those six at-bats were enough to offer another reminder of how differently the Mets operate in the Steve Cohen era.

Sanchez was a fine no-risk flyer when his contract was selected from Triple-A Syracuse on May 19. He was hitting .308 with a 1.014 OPS in eight games for Syracuse and offered the possibility of providing an immediate jolt to the Mets, who were one game under .500 and ranked 18th in the majors in runs scored at the time of his promotion.

It would have been a good problem for the Mets to have if Sanchez — still somehow only 30 years old — rediscovered the form he displayed while hitting .247 with 105 homers for the Yankees from 2016-2019 and gave the Mets four healthy catchers — along with promising rookie Francisco Alvarez and two injured backstops, Tomas Nido and Omar Narvaez.

Registering one hit in those aforementioned six at-bats aren’t nearly enough time to decide if Sanchez still has anything left. But the small sample size coupled with familiar defensive gaffes — he was charged with a passed ball and dropped a pop-up in a 7-2 loss to the Cubs on May 23 — was enough to move on from him once Nido returned last Thursday.

Of course, it helps that Alvarez — who was recalled from Syracuse when Narvaez suffered a calf injury Apr. 5 and is hitting .292 with seven homers and 17 RBIs this month while playing solid defense and starting 21 of the Mets’ 28 games — looks every bit like the real deal and a legitimate candidate to win the NL Rookie of the Year.

Still, the Sanchez experiment was a bite-sized version of last season’s Robinson Cano’s experiment. (Sanchez, like Cano, is now a Yankees/Mets/Padres legend after being claimed off waivers by San Diego yesterday)

While the Mets would have been plenty justified in cutting Cano following his year-long suspension for a second PED bust, they brought him to spring training and kept him on the roster throughout the first month to see if he still had something to contribute as a backup second baseman and designated hitter.

Cano, to the surprise of no one, had nothing left and went 8-for-41 with a homer and 11 strikeouts before being designated for assignment May 2 — or roughly 17 months before the Wilpons, who never recognized a sunk cost and didn’t have the resources to turn Cano into a role player, would have cut the second baseman who was still due almost $48 million through the end of 2023.

Nobody had any financial commitment to Sanchez, who found no takers in free agency following last season. But he likely would have been very appealing to the Wilpon-era Mets as a still-young former All-Star who could hold down catcher until Alvarez finished the seasoning process at Triple-A.

That is also the gentle way of saying the Mets would have bought low on a buy-low guy with the intent of keeping Alvarez in the minors until the super two deadline passed and they didn’t have to worry about him reaching arbitration until after the 2026 season.

Jose Reyes swiped 26 bases in 42 games with Triple-A Norfolk in 2003 while the Mets were trotting Rey Sanchez out there to hit .225 with a .528 OPS in between getting in-game haircuts and blaming rookie pitchers for the errors he made. And because those Mets were those Mets, they kept Rey Sanchez on the roster even after promoting Reyes so that the veteran could hit .156 with a .326 OPS before he was finally traded to the Mariners.

Ty Wigginton was much better as a player and potential veteran mentor for Wright in 2004. But there was still no reason other than service time manipulation for Wigginton to put up solid numbers (.281 with 12 homers and 41 RBIs) while Wright batted .341 with 18 homers, 57 RBIs and 22 stolen bases between Double-A Binghamton and Triple-A Norfolk before finally getting promoted July 21. (And because those Mets were those Mets, Wigginton was traded nine days later to the Pirates — along with Jose Bautista! — for Kris Benson because the Wilpons decided to go for it even though the Mets were 7 1/2 games out of a wild card spot)

Perhaps Alvarez would get an extended audition if Brodie van Wagenen was still the Mets’ general manager (just try and envision it, for the sake of this exercise). As easy as it is to mock van Wagenen’s two-year cameo as a general manager, he deserves credit for playing no service time games with Pete Alonso, who made the Mets out of spring training in 2019 and smashed 53 homers while establishing himself as the biggest position player gate attraction for the franchise since Darryl Strawberry.

But those Mets certainly wouldn’t have signed Narvaez and/or Nido as their insurance for the 21-year-old Alvarez. Maybe Nido, the defensive specialist who signed a two-year contract worth $3.7 million in January, would have been extended under the old administration.

But Narvaez, who signed a one-year deal worth $8 million with a $7 million option for 2024, would have gotten that big money somewhere else. And Gary Sanchez quite likely would have gotten more than six at-bats with the Mets.