Did the Pirates make the right choice with Yasmani Grandal over Gary Sánchez?

Right before spring training, the Pirates were reportedly interested in signing Gary Sánchez to be the team's starting catcher. Ben Cherinton reportedly lost interest after discovering Sánchez had a wrist injury, which pushed him to sign Yasmani Grandal instead.

Although Grandal finished the season on a high note with a monster second half, his performance throughout the first half of the season was very poor and made fans question if he was the right choice over Sánchez.

Who had the better 2024 between Yasmani Grandal and Gary Sánchez?

Both of these catchers were signed to one-year contracts. Grandal was given $2.5 million and Sánchez got $3 million with incentives that could make it worth up to $7 million. Those incentives were based upon his health, and he played in enough games (89) to earn that. In fact, Sánchez played in 17 more games than Grandal, despite the health concern.

Offensively, these players are very similar. Grandal had a batting average of .228 with nine home runs and 27 RBI. His OPS sat at .704, with a wRC+ of 95 and a strikeout percentage of 18.9%.

On the other hand, Sánchez batted .220, while slugging 11 home runs and driving in 37 runs. He had an OPS of .699, along with a wRC+ of 96, striking out 27.1% of the time.

Immediately, it appears that Grandal had better overall numbers in fewer games, and it's not just through paper-pencil statistics either. Statcast metrics show Grandal had a higher average exit velocity (91.1 mph compared to 90 mph), expected batting average (.246 to .223), and squared up rate (35.3% contrast to 25.6%) than Sánchez.

On top of that, Grandal had an fWAR of 1.4 while Sánchez had a 0.3. This is because Grandal has an edge on defense. Sánchez has a significantly better pop time, producing a 1.96 in comparison to the league's worst in Grandal with 2.09. What Sanchez lacks is framing (at -1 run value) while Grandal's is at six, ranking in the 86th percentile.

Overall, the Pirates made the right decision with choosing Grandal over Sánchez as he had the better season in 2024. Grandal had better defense, slightly better offense, and came with a cheaper price. A nice minor win for the Buccos.