Gary Sánchez has given the Brewers plenty to like this season, but there’s one part of his game that stands out for the wrong reason: his ABS challenges.
Expected to fill a backup catching role, Sánchez was pushed into more action after early injuries and has handled the extra work well. Through 165 plate appearances, he’s hit .218/.364/.451, production that works out to a 122 OPS+.
The odd wrinkle is how often he’s getting involved in challenge decisions. Behind the plate, Sánchez has challenged 33 times, which ranks 42nd among catchers.
He’s won 19 of those, a 58% success rate, and those reviews have helped the Brewers gain four strikeouts and turn two walks their way. The results are respectable.
The volume is what jumps out.
Sánchez has the 7th-highest challenge rate in baseball at 3.6%, making him one of the most aggressive catchers in the sport when it comes to asking for reviews. That may not be entirely on him. William Contreras is ninth in MLB in challenge rate, and the Brewers as a team have challenged more than any club so far this year.
The bigger problem shows up when Sánchez is at the plate. He leads the league in lost challenges with 14 in 24 attempts.
His challenge rate there is 17.1%, which is way above his expected challenge rate of 4.8%. In other words, he’s taking swings at calls far more often than the situation really calls for.
That matters because Sánchez has become a huge piece of Milwaukee’s overall challenge picture. The Brewers have made just 60 hitter challenges all season, the fewest in baseball, and Sánchez is responsible for 24 of them. That’s 40% of the team’s total from a player who isn’t even in the lineup every day.
The cost of a bad challenge isn’t the same as a fielding error or a strikeout, but it still matters. Teams only get so many chances, and burning one on a low-probability pitch can leave a club without a challenge when a truly bad call comes later. That’s where discipline becomes as important as accuracy.
So the answer isn’t for Sánchez to stop challenging altogether. His work behind the plate suggests he has a decent feel for when to push for a review.
The issue is his approach in the batter’s box, where he’s been too quick to gamble on borderline calls. If he gets more selective there, the Brewers can save their challenges for the moments that really matter.
For a team that has been so disciplined overall, that kind of adjustment could clean up one of the few blemishes on an otherwise excellent season for Milwaukee’s veteran backup catcher.
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