Two Hundred Swings of the Kraken

La Victoria

Gary Sánchez grew up in La Victoria, a community in Santo Domingo, without proper baseball equipment. His parents separated when he was young, and his mother Orquidia Herrera worked nursing shifts while his grandmother Agustina Pena helped raise him and his four siblings. He and his brother improvised street games with cardboard cut into glove shapes, limes or doll heads for balls, broomsticks for bats. One of his brothers, Miguel Sánchez, later played in the Seattle Mariners organization.

At 15, he stood in front of Yankees scouts and hit home runs to right field, center field, and left field in four swings. The organization signed him for $3 million on July 2, 2009, at age 16. Off the field, his interests ran to video games and relaxed time with family at the beach.

He debuted in October 2015. He is nicknamed the Kraken. He made All-Star teams in 2017 and 2019, won a Silver Slugger in 2017, and played seven seasons in the Bronx. Then Minnesota in 2022, the Mets and Padres in 2023, Milwaukee in 2024, Baltimore in 2025, and back to the Brewers this year.

On August 30, Sánchez hit his 200th career home run. Twelve seasons, 936 games, a .223 career average and a .459 slugging percentage from the right side of the plate.

The light switch

Around 2014, Sánchez's first daughter Sarah was born. He credits the birth with transforming him from a player going through the motions into one praised for his work ethic and maturity. He returned to his Double-A team and told coaches he was ready to work. Manager Julio Mosquera described it as a light switch flipping on.

Yankees coaches and teammates had seen the earlier maturity issues, and saw the change. Aaron Boone later noted his admiration for how Sánchez handled struggles by working smartly.

Sánchez is 33 years old. He woke up today a Brewer, with 11 home runs in 76 games this season.

Reporting: New York Post, ABC News, ESPN, New York Daily News, Wikipedia. Career and biographical data: MLB StatsAPI, via the Fever engine.