February 14: Milwaukee officially announced the Sánchez deal. The Brewers had room on the 40-man roster, so there was no corresponding move needed.
February 11: The Brewers have agreed to a deal with the veteran catcher Gary Sanchezreports Jon Heyman of the New York Post. Client MDR Sports will be guaranteed $1.75MM in the deal.
Sánchez, 33, spent the 2025 season with the Orioles organization but was limited to 30 games and 101 plate appearances due to wrist inflammation and, worse, a posterior cruciate ligament sprain in his right knee. He was moderately productive when healthy, slugging five homers and posting a .231/.297/.418 batting line (100 wRC+).
This will be Sánchez’s second game with the Brewers in the past three seasons. He spent the 2024 campaign in Milwaukee again, hitting .220/.307/.392 with 11 homers in 280 plate appearances. He worked as a backup to William Contreras and the interim (40 games) designated hitter that season and figures to play that role again in 2026.
A former top prospect and All-Star with the Yankees early in his career, Sánchez has settled into a backup/interim role in recent seasons. He appeared in 128 games and totaled 471 plate appearances with the Twins in 2022 after being traded from the Bronx to Minnesota, but only made 648 plate appearances combined over the next three seasons (albeit, in part due to injuries last year).
Sánchez developed a reputation as a defensive liability early in his career but improved to post strong defensive marks behind the plate in 2022 and 2023. He was still close to average in ’24 and dropped back to below average in 2025, according to both the Defensive Runs Saved and Statly5 sample (the Statly5 sample was smaller). He will return to the Milwaukee club where he is familiar with some members of the staff (eg Brandon Woodruff, Abner Uribe, Trevor McGill, Aaron Ashby, Jared Koenig), but the Brewers’ staff has turned around a bit even in the 18 months since Sánchez’s first departure.
The Brewers recently signed a veteran catcher Reese McGuire to a minor league deal and invited him to spring training. He had been in the running as Contreras’ backup but now looks like he’ll be ticketed to Triple-A Nashville — if he doesn’t have an opt-out clause in his contract that allows him to explore other opportunities late in camp.
The addition of those two veterans gives the Brewers the ability to be more patient with a top prospect Jefferson Querowidely regarded as Contreras’ heir apparent behind the plate but still has just 59 games and 251 plate appearances of Triple-A ball under his belt. He could get into trouble with a big enough season in Nashville, and he’ll likely be ready to make a full appearance in 2027, when Contreras will enter his final season in control of the club (and likely be a trade candidate last season, as is often the case with Brewers’ top players who are a year away from free agency).
