Yankees to promote catcher Gary Sanchez to New York

Shortly after the Yankees finished off their series victory over the Kansas City Royals, news broke of exciting prospect developments. Shane Hennigan, the Times-Tribune beat writer for the Triple-A Scranton RailRiders, revealed that catcher Gary Sanchez was going to be promoted to the Yankees. They will be facing the Chicago White Sox and a couple very tough lefties this weekend in Chris Sale and Jose Quintana, so adding a power righty bat like Sanchez makes sense.

This will not be Sanchez's first foray to the majors though, as he received his first call-up in the middle of last September. He only made it into two games as a pinch-hitter, where he went hitless, so he is still looking for his first big league hit. Sanchez had a terrific comeback year in 2015, hitting .274/.330/.485 with 18 homers in 93 games between Scranton and Double-A Trenton. He was batting .280/.330/.542 with five dingers in 26 games with Scranton prior to his promotion, showing even more power than he did last year in Triple-A. Sanchez also just recently passed the deadline to get another year of arbitration, which was definitely on the Yankees' minds as well.

It has not yet been revealed what the subsequent roster move will be to make room for Sanchez on the roster, but the logical move would be to demote a pitcher. The Yankees (sadly) demoted outfielder Ben Gamel and were carrying an extra one tonight in Tyler Olson since they had a weary bullpen after yesterday. So to get back to a standard four-man bench, it makes sense to demote Olson or perhaps Nick Goody. (Update: That's what happened.)

The only odd part of the move is that the Yankees will seemingly carry three catchers with Sanchez, starter Brian McCann, and current backup Austin Romine. For his part, Romine has looked surprisingly sharp early on by hitting .348/.375/.478 in an admittedly brief 25 plate appearances. Obviously Sanchez is more important to the team's future, so there could be a second part of this move involving Romine, though he would have clear waivers to return to the minors. Maybe there's a trade in order, or perhaps the team feels comfortable with the versatility of Dustin Ackley and Ronald Torreyes to roll with three catchers.

Either way, it's time to UNLEASH THE KRAKEN: