CLEVELAND — Slumping slugger Gary Sánchez will be benched in favor of Kyle Higashioka in the New York Yankees lineup for their wild-card opener Tuesday night.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone confirmed Monday that Higashioka would catch ace Gerrit Cole to start the best-of-three series against the Cleveland Indians.
“It’s kind of beyond what I would have imagined at the beginning of the season,” Higashioka said.
With Giancarlo Stanton set to start at designated hitter, Sánchez — a two-time All-Star — won’t crack the starting lineup and will instead be available to pinch-hit when the Yankees face Cleveland ace Shane Bieber.
“He was fine,” Boone said about Sánchez’s reaction. “He knows to be ready at any point, early in the game.”
Sánchez batted .147 this season, which would have been lowest in the majors by far if he had enough at-bats to qualify. The 27-year-old hit 10 home runs, third among catchers, but looked lost at the plate for long stretches.
MARLINS: Dick Scott, a former Ellsworth High School star, has been let go as the Miami Marlins farm director, according to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal.
Scott was hired by the Marlins in Nov. 2017 after serving for two seasons as the New York Mets bench coach. Scott was drafted by the New York Yankees in the 17th round of the 1981 draft. He played three games in the major leagues for the Oakland Athletics in 1989.
OBIT: Jay Johnstone, who won World Series championships as a versatile outfielder with the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers while being baseball’s merry prankster, has died. He was 74.
He died last Saturday of complications from COVID-19 and also had suffered from dementia in recent years, according to his daughter Mary Jayne Sarah Johnstone. He died at a nursing home in Granada Hills, she said Monday.
“COVID was the one thing he couldn’t fight,” his daughter said by phone. “It’s really kind of shocking.”
His family noted that Johnstone’s time of death last Saturday occurred around the same time Dodger Stadium was plunged into darkness because of a power outage.
“He may have had a hand in it or a victory lap of remembrance,” said Rick Monday, Johnstone’s former teammate and current Dodgers broadcaster.
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