Sanchez to undergo surgery on left shoulder

CARLSBAD, Calif. — Gary Sanchez will be a dreaded “rehabilitation player” in spring training, although the Yankees hope to have their everyday catcher behind the plate for Opening Day.

Brian Cashman announced Wednesday, at the general managers’ meetings, that Sanchez will undergo a cleanup procedure of his left shoulder in the next week. Yankees head team physician Christopher Ahmad will perform the surgery.

“His shoulder has bothered him off and on since ’17,” Cashman said. “He’s been treated conservatively with it. He had an injection [of cortisone] toward the end of ’17. He had two in ’18. And he just resumed workouts and still felt a little bit lingering from it.”

The downtime after the surgery should be three months, Cashman said; hence the Yankees’ general manager’s optimism Sanchez will have enough spring-training time to prepare for the team’s season opener March 28 against the Orioles at Yankee Stadium.

Asked whether Sanchez’s shoulder problem led to his poor offensive showing in 2018, Cashman said, “It might have. It bothered him from time to time. When it did, he would complain about it and he’d get assessed. He had MRIs that didn’t show anything overtly.”

Cashman said the talks to re-up with CC Sabathia began the day after the Yankees lost the American League Division Series to the Red Sox, as the two men met in the Yankees’ clubhouse at the Stadium.

“He said, ‘Cash, I want to play again,’ ” Cashman said. “‘I will play somewhere else if I have to, but I don’t want to play anywhere else. I’m a Yankee. I want to end as a Yankee. It’s my last year. But I am going to play. But I hope that it’s here. And I want you to definitely know that.’ ”

Cashman said of shortstop Didi Gregorius, who can be a free agent after the 2019 season, “We’ll hopefully keep him for a long time.”

Asked how Gregorius’ Tommy John surgery would impact the chances of an extension, Cashman said, “I’m not focused on it right now. I’m a big fan of the player. I don’t think Tommy John will be a career-ending issue for him, like it typically isn’t. It’s a problem that we all have to deal with. How we deal with it remains to be seen. But he’s wired the right way.”

Asked whether last year’s trade for Giancarlo Stanton factors into the Yankees making another big investment this offseason — Bryce Harper and Manny Machado are free agents — Cashman said, “Adding Stanton or retaining the current player group that are starting to ramp up and make money in arbitration, like Aaron Hicks is … it all cuts into a pie of dollars that’s available to us. So it’s all relevant.”