The Detroit Tigers sign former St Louis Cardinals catcher Ali Sánchez to a minor league deal.

The Detroit Tigers claim catcher Ali Sanchez off the waiver wire from the St. Louis Cardinals per the tweet by Detroit Tigers PR.

Who is Ali Sánchez?

The Venezuelan born 6’1, 200 lbs Sanchez was signed by the New York Mets as an international draft signing period in 2013-2014 for $690K. Sanchez is primarily known for his defense abilities behind the plate.

Here is an early scouting report on Ali from Baseball America back in 2015 ($)

“Sanchez uses a contact-oriented, inside-out approach to hit for a high average, though with added strength and maturity he could approach average power. Sanchez is a quiet receiver with quick feet and hands, which he uses to make fluid transfers from glove to hand.” 

His contact approach has him hitting the balls to all fields with a walk rate around 6% to 7%. In his first year in the Dominican Summer League ball, he put up a slash line of .303/.406/.394 with an OPS of .800. He worked his way up in the Mets system, hitting .261/.326/.322 in 2019 between Double-A Binghamton and Triple-A Syracuse, but for not much power with just one home run over 359 plate appearances.

He made up to New York in 2020, where he played five games before being picked up by the Cardinals in February 2021. In his time up with the Cardinals, he went 2-for-4 in two games last year.

With the signing of Sanchez, it gives Detroit another veteran catcher down in Toledo along with Dustin Garneau and Ryan Lavarnway.