The Brewers are adding catching depth on a one-year, $1.75 million deal with veteran Gary Sánchez, a source told MLB.com's Mark Feinsand on Wednesday. The club has not confirmed the deal.
An 11-year Major League veteran, Sánchez spent the 2025 season with the Orioles but was limited to just 29 games. He spent most of the year on the injured list, first due to right wrist inflammation (from April 28-June 14) and later for a right knee sprain from Aug. 22 through the end of the regular season.
The Orioles were the 33-year-old's fifth team since he left the Yankees, with whom he signed as a 16-year-old international amateur in July 2009 and spent his first seven MLB seasons. After being traded to the Twins in March 2022, Sánchez has also seen time with the Mets, Padres and Brewers, plus a brief Minor League stint with the Giants in 2023.
He's yet to stick anywhere since leaving the Bronx, but Sánchez has enjoyed some success over the last four seasons, most notably down the stretch with San Diego in 2023, when he hit 19 home runs in 72 games. He did show signs he's still capable of such a run briefly between injuries in 2025, when he hit .354 with four homers and 18 RBIs in a 13-game span in June.
Assuming that he continues in a backup catcher role moving forward, Sánchez makes a particularly intriguing bench player. A two-time All-Star (2017, '19) and former Silver Slugger with two 30-homer seasons to his name, Sánchez finished second in AL Rookie of the Year voting in 2016 after hitting 20 homers and posting a 1.032 OPS in 53 games.
Although he hasn't replicated that kind of production with any consistency since 2019, Sánchez has continued putting up high barrel rates, sometimes resulting in unexpected power numbers for clubs that have taken a flier on him.
In 859 games at the Major League level, Sánchez is a lifetime .224/.309/.461 (.770 OPS) hitter with 189 home runs and 509 RBIs.