Gary Sanchez to Remain Benched for Austin Romine on Sonny Gray's Starts

New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Monday he plans to use Austin Romine over Gary Sanchez at catcher in games Sonny Gray starts for the immediate future.

After Gray turned in a strong performance with four hits, three walks and two earned runs allowed over six innings in a 2-1 loss to the Houston Astros on Monday, Boone said the following, according to ESPN.com's Coley Harvey:

"His next start is probably Saturday when we're home [against Cleveland], which will be a day game after a night game. So especially in those kind of scenarios like here where we travel and got in in the middle of the night and where you know Gary is going to be down.

"At least in the short term we'll do that [with Gray and Romine] and hopefully get to a point to where it doesn't matter."

Gray has struggled this season, putting up a 1-2 record and 6.67 ERA in six starts. Monday's outing with Romine behind the plate was his best performance since picking up a win over the Baltimore Orioles on April 7.

Since going from the Oakland Athletics to the Yanks via trade last season, Gray has fared far better with Romine as his batterymate.

In 53 innings with Sanchez, Gray is 2-7 with a 5.94 ERA. Conversely, the righty is 3-2 with a 2.75 ERA in 39.1 innings with Romine.

While Romine is considered a much better defensive catcher, there is a significant offensive drop-off between them.

Although Sanchez is hitting .202, he is arguably the best offensive catcher in baseball, and he has seven home runs and 24 RBI this season.

In his first full campaign, the 25-year-old clubbed 33 homers and drove in 90 runs in 2017.

By comparison, Romine is hitting .276 with no home runs and six RBI. In 230 career games, he is a .223 hitter with seven home runs and 64 RBI.

Boone can keep Sanchez's bat in the lineup by using him as a designated hitter when Romine catches, but there is danger in doing so.

If Romine were to get hurt while Sanchez serves as the DH, Boone would be forced to move Sanchez behind the plate and lose his designated hitter for the remainder of the game.

While Gray and Romine appear poised to work together more, the pitcher said he wants to have a good rapport with all of his catchers, per Harvey: "I want to feel comfortable no matter what. So ultimately it can just kind of boil down to me and me being able to process the game a little bit better myself, at times."

So far this season, Gray has been the weak link of New York's rotation, as CC Sabathia, Luis Severino and Jordan Montgomery all have an ERA of 3.76 or better, and Masahiro Tanaka has improved of late.

Despite Gray's struggles, the Yanks have the third-best record in the American League at 18-10, and they trail the Boston Red Sox by three games for first place in the AL East.