Sanchez has top-selling jersey in AL
PITTSBURGH — The mission, already clear, intensified for Gary Sanchez on Friday. No one wants to be a one-hit wonder. The Yankees’ catcher now has his first hit in the sales department. “Not pressure at all,” Sanchez said, through an interpreter, when asked about the exciting news he learned. “On the other hand, it’s motivation. Without the fans, it wouldn’t be as much as it is. So to me, I see it as more motivation.” Major League Baseball and the Players Association announced its annual mostpopular player jersey list on Friday, and man, oh, man, are the defending cham- pion Cubs driving this market. Reigning National League Most Valuable Player Kris Bryant tops the chart, and his teammates Anthony Rizzo, Javier Baez and Kyle Schwarber rank second, fourth and fifth, respectively. Only Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw breaks up the Wrigley Field logjam as the number three jersey.
Sanchez, the Yankees’ second-year catcher, can be found at number nine. That’s quite good, given he hasn’t even spent a full year in the major leagues. It’s even better when you consider that Sanchez jerseys sold better than those of any other player in the American League. The Angels’ Mike Trout, the 2016 AL MVP, trails Sanchez at No. 10.
“I think it tells you how recognizable he is by what he did last year, and how excited people are to see him play,” Joe Girardi said, before the Yankees 6-3 loss to the Pirates. “Little kids look up to him like ‘I hope I’m like Sanchez one day.’”
The 24-year-old, currently on the disabled list with a right biceps strain, saw the news while looking at Twitter on his phone.
“It’s great,” he said. “It’s very exciting to see the fans support us that way. It’s just not me. It’s a team here. I feel grateful for their support.”
Of course it speaks well of the Yankees as an entity, yet the underlying purpose behind this annual, buzz-generating press release is to promote the game’s most recognizable and bankable stars at a time when baseball has struggled to produce marquee names along the lines of, say, LeBron James and Stephen Curry in the NBA.