Report: Yankees to tender a contract to catcher Gary Sanchez

The New York Yankees aren't giving up on catcher Gary Sanchez yet. 

ESPN's Buster Olney reported that the Yankees will tender a contract to Sanchez before Wednesday's deadline for arbitration-eligible players. As Mike Axisa noted for CBS Sports, it's projected that Sanchez will earn a salary of $5.5 million for the 2021 season. 

Sanchez celebrated his 28th birthday on the second day of December coming off the worst campaign of his career. In 49 games played across the pandemic-shortened regular season, he hit a woeful .147 with 10 home runs, 24 RBI, 64 strikeouts, and a .365 slugging percentage. 

Additionally, Sanchez was such a liability behind the plate (he was guilty of six interference errors) that he was benched by manager Aaron Boone in favor of Kyle Higashioka on multiple occasions. However, Sanchez did blast 34 homers in 2019 and is a two-time All-Star (2017, 2019), and Boone came to his catcher's defense during a November appearance on the YES Network. 

“I think he’s been unfairly criticized a lot,” Boone said in an interview shared on Nov. 23, per Mark Fischer of the New York Post. “I think at times it’s over the top and people are blinded by some of the things that he’s done really well. This year was certainly a challenging year for him and a struggle for him in a lot of ways, but that’s okay.”