Gary smashing expectations with 6th HR in 13 games

SAN DIEGO -- Maybe it’s a better story if the Padres saw this coming -- if they somehow knew that the All-Star version of Gary Sánchez would be reincarnated upon his arrival.

But that’s not what this was. Not by a long shot. Two weeks ago, the Padres were merely desperate for a catching upgrade. Their backstops had combined to post the lowest WAR in the Majors, according to FanGraphs. Sánchez had just been designated for assignment by the Mets. The Padres swooped.

"It's an opportunity,” general manager A.J. Preller said shortly after his team had claimed Sánchez. “A low-cost acquisition, to see if we can upgrade the catching spot.”

Never, in their wildest dreams, could the Padres have envisioned this.

Two weeks into his tenure in San Diego, Sánchez remains on an absolute tear. He went deep again in a 6-3 victory over the Guardians on Tuesday night, his sixth home run in 13 games with his new club. By all accounts, Sánchez has been brilliant behind the plate, too. Padres pitchers have raved about working with him -- and the recent performances of Blake Snell, Yu Darvish and Michael Wacha, among others, should back that assertion.

“The longer he’s here, the more you expect of him,” said Padres manager Bob Melvin. “But coming in, we were just looking to get a little bit of an upgrade all the way around. Whether it was offense. Whether it was being able to throw out some runners. He’s always had good framing skills.

“I really didn’t know what to expect. My expectations weren’t really high. We were just going to take it day to day.”

All the Padres could promise Sánchez was an opportunity. Turns out, that was all he needed.

Sánchez was at his home in Tampa when he got the phone call from his agent telling him he’d been claimed by the Padres. He joined the team in Miami the next day. In his first series with the club, he homered twice and went 4-for-11.

Sánchez homered two more times on the ensuing homestand, then did so again in Colorado on Friday. In no time, he was the Padres’ primary catcher and a force in the middle of their lineup. He sports a .981 OPS through 13 games, and it’s already hard to imagine this lineup without him.

“Really, it’s all about the welcoming that I received from the coaches, the front office, my fellow teammates,” Sánchez said through Spanish interpreter Danny Sanchez. “I do feel like I’ve played here for a long time.”

It's not the first time Sánchez has alluded to the welcoming atmosphere as a reason behind his early success.

“When he came over here, everybody embraced him,” said Fernando Tatis Jr., who also homered on Tuesday. “He legit had a chance over here. … I mean, everybody knows what he’s capable of.”

The Padres led 1-0 in the first inning Tuesday when Sánchez first came to the plate. It was precisely the type of situation this underperforming offense has found itself in frequently this season. The Padres had their opponent on the ropes. Somebody needed to deliver a haymaker.

On a team with plenty of firepower, those haven’t come often enough. But Sánchez is certainly providing his share. He got a hanging slider from Cleveland starter Tanner Bibee and laced a three-run homer into the left-field seats. Haymaker, landed.

“Especially here at home, where we’ve had a little trouble scoring runs early in the game like that,” Melvin said. “Got the crowd into it -- usually that’s a pretty good recipe for us.”

In the second, Tatis answered a Guardians run by launching a laser homer just to the left of dead center. Cleveland scored again in the fifth, and San Diego again answered swiftly, this time on Xander Bogaerts’ RBI double.

By the time Sánchez came to the plate later in the fifth inning, the party was on at Petco Park (sold out for the 23rd time this season). Pockets of “Ga-ry, Ga-ry” chants arose. They grew louder in the eighth. Not bad for a waiver claim who was recently designated for assignment and is playing for his fourth organization in the past calendar year.

“That just goes to show that sometimes guys just need a change of scenery, need to be around the right type of people,” said right-hander Joe Musgrove, who worked with Sánchez for the first time on Tuesday and pitched six quality innings. “He feels very comfortable here, and obviously he’s getting the opportunities.”

Two weeks ago, that was all the Padres could promise Sánchez.

And that’s all he was asking for anyway.