DataBaseball
2026
Gary Sánchez headshot

C · 2026

Gary Sánchez

Age
34
B/T
R/R
Height
6' 2"
Weight
251 lb
Number
#99
Born
December 2, 1992 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
MLB debut
October 3, 2015
Salary, 2026
$1.5M
dbWAR
2.2
4 season(s)
PA
200
AVG
.225
OBP
.375
SLG
.450
wRC+
137
100 = avg

Gary Sánchez is a catcher for the Milwaukee Brewers. In 2026 he hit 9 home runs and knocked in 27 RBIs, notching 36 hits across 200 plate appearances in 61 games. His batting average was .225, 7.7% lower than the league average of .244. He reached base at a .375 clip and slugged .450, for an OPS of .825, 14.7% higher than the league mark of .719 — the third best on his team, and 46th of 417 among MLB batters with 100+ plate appearances. He averaged 88.6 mph off the bat, hit 36.8% of balls in play at 95 mph or better, barrelled 8.8% of them and made contact on 74.3% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 137 wRC+ puts his offence 37% above average. That comes to 1.5 dbWAR — +8.4 runs with the bat, -0.3 on the bases, +0.0 for the position he plays, against replacement level. It includes no fielding: defensive runs are proprietary and are not estimated here, so the figure credits playing a demanding position but not playing it well.

League context

Percentile among qualified batters, 2026.

wRC+137
wOBA.369
ISO.225
BB%18.5%
WAR1.5

How the WAR is built

Runs above replacement, 2026. These four terms sum to +14.8 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR.

Batting+8.4Baserunning-0.3Position+0.0Replacement+6.7
BattingBaserunningPositionReplacement

WAR by season

1.50.70.0242526

Platoon splits

How he hits left- and right-handed pitching.

Batting by the hand the pitcher throws with, 2026. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
SplitPAABHHRBBSOAVGOBPSLGwOBAK%
vs LHP82661931513.288.415.485.39815.9%
vs RHP118941762223.181.347.426.34919.5%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2026.

Loading 125 batted balls…

Contact quality

How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 125 tracked batted balls in 2026. Percentiles are against qualified batters.

Barrel rate
8.8%
11 barrels
Exit velocity
88.6
mph average
Max exit velo
111.9
mph, hardest hit
Hard hit
36.8%
95 mph or better
Sweet spot
29.6%
8–32° launch
Launch angle
16.6°
average
Barrel rate8.8%
Exit velocity88.6 mph
Hard hit rate36.8%
Contact rate74.3%

A barrel is a batted ball whose exit velocity and launch angle have historically produced at least a .500 average and 1.500 slugging — 98 mph within 26–30°, widening to 8–50° by 116 mph. Reconstructed from Statcast's published anchor points, which reproduces them exactly; the interior is within a degree. Sweet spot (8–32°) is an exact definition.

Hot and cold zones

Batting average by pitch location, 2026.

.100.083.10010 AB.25012 AB.2508 AB.25012 AB.21119 AB.21119 AB5 AB.47419 AB.16712 AB
Below averageLeague averageAbove average
Batting average by location of the pitch that ended each plate appearance, catcher's view. The bordered square is the strike zone; the outer band is chase territory. Cells with fewer than 8 at-bats are left grey rather than shown as signal. League average on the same attribution is .243.

Situational hitting

How Gary Sánchez hits by base state, outs, score and late-game pressure — each read against his own season line.

Split by
By who is on base when he comes up. The season line is repeated as the baseline.
SituationPAABHHRRBIBBSOAVGOBPSLGwOBA
All situations200.225.375.450.369
Bases empty1017918552117.228.396.468.387
Runner on first413270197.219.390.281.329
Runners on9981184221619.222.354.432.351
RISP584911421712.224.328.531.366

Runners on includes runners in scoring position, which is the convention every reference uses. Counted from play-by-play, 2026.

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.

Trend
2026612003692703736.225.375.450.225.23318.5%18.0%.369+8.41371.5
202528101215240427.231.297.418.187.2674.0%26.7%.312-0.3960.4
20248828054113702776.220.307.392.171.2679.6%27.1%.310-0.61000.6

Pitching

Standard and advanced, by season.

Trend
2025101.0000240136.0022.143.000.09.0866532-0.2

Head to head

Put Gary Sánchez beside up to three others.

Compare — add up to 3 more players
Gary Sánchez

Similar players

Nearest 2026 seasons by discipline, contact, power and speed, on rate statistics rather than totals.

How these are computed

wOBA uses linear weights measured from this season's own play-by-play rather than published constants, and wRC+ is park-adjusted against that same league. dbWAR is our own open implementation — not fWAR or bWAR — and the full derivation, including its simplifications, is on the methodology page.