Gary Sánchez burst onto the baseball scene in 2016 with an impressive rookie season with the Yankees in which he hit 20 home runs in just 53 games. It earned him second place in Rookie of the Year voting and high expectations for his career. He followed through in 2017 with 33 home runs, a silver slugger as a catcher, and his first All-Star appearance.
Those first two seasons were surely what the Yankees had imagined when they gave him a $3 million signing bonus as a 16-year-old out of the Dominican Republic. He started off in the minors with a bang but his performance had stagnated some before he made the majors.