Benching a Player is So Yesterday

Gary Sanchez had a disastrous game for the New York Yankees last night in Tampa Bay. He moved with the urgency of a sloth on two key plays and his embarrassing effort hurt his team.

He lollygagged after a passed ball in the first inning, allowing Rays’ Jake Bauers to race in and score from second base. Lack of hustle always looks bad. It’s compounded when the other side is competing at 110 percent.

Conventional wisdom suggests Sanchez should have learned from his mistake. He doubled down instead. The catcher stepped into the plate with two outs in the ninth, down one, with the bases loaded.

He ripped a groundball up the middle, which was fielded by second baseman Daniel Robertson. Yankees’ Aaron Hicks, who was running hard, managed to beat the flip to Willy Adames at second. What should have been a tie game, however, turned into a New York loss when Adames alertly fired to first to retire a slow-moving Sanchez.

Let’s be perfectly clear. Both incidents were bad. Neither can happen, especially in the heat of a playoff chase. But the knee-jerk reactions calling for manager Aaron Boone to teach his young catcher a lesson by benching him are misguided.

Punitive measures like this are a vestige of the past. They feel good in the moment, as does all revenge and perceived justice. It’s worth wondering — and to channel Forrest MacNeal here — are they any good?

The main purpose is to prove a point. To show that there are consequences for unprofessional behavior. To drive home the fact that a player screwed up.

Here’s the problem. No one understands he screwed up more than Sanchez. He was there. He’s the one that felt the embrassment. He’s the one who now must deal with his disappointed teammates and manager. That’s a more meaningful punishment and, I’d argue, more likely to serve as a corrective.

Mistakes — both physical and mental — happen. Ask Boone, who mismanaged the ninth inning by having Didi Gregorious bunt, effectively taking an at-bat away from Giancarlo Stanton. Perhaps if he’s going to bench Sanchez, he should also grab some pine. After all, their transgressions are comparable. And both proved equally detrimental to winning.

The problem with forcing a player to ride the bench is that it hamstrings the team. Sanchez, though struggling this year, is the Yankees’ best option behind the plate. He will be counted on down the stretch and in the playoffs.

Why turn a one-game mistake into a three-game mistake?  Why take the field with a lesser lineup so you can discipline a player? Obviously, we’re not privy to the inner workings of that locker room.

But I’d wager most players understand the urgency of every game from here on out. The Yankees are six games behind Boston and four ahead of Seattle for Wild-Card home field. Allowing the Sanchez situation to spiral out of control could cause a precipitous and costly downfall.

It’s best to put Monday in the rearview and not mete out punishment for punishment’s sake. The emotional impulse to enact justice should not obscure the intelligent and prudent course of action.

And while we’re at it, maybe the team’s social media unit could show a bit more caution. Look at this ill-timed tweet — or troll — of Sanchez. Stuff like this isn’t helping anyone.

The risk in letting Sanchez play without a public shaming is twofold. First, it could suggest he’s governed by a different set of rules than the other players. Second, he could lollygag again.

Call me naive and soft, but I truly believe that today’s ballplayer is capable of internalizing mistakes and correcting behavior without the aide of short-sighted punishment. More importantly, today’s ballplayers do not need to see a teammate penalized after a mistake to feel like an equal.

Boone has a myriad of closed-door options to select from to send his message. All keep Sanchez in the lineup. Here’s hoping he’s smart enough to explore one of those.