If Your Birthday is December 2nd...

...you share it with Gary Sanchez, the enigmatic Yankees catcher, whose up and down career leaves us with more questions than answers: Is he a star? An underachiever? Poorly coached? Misunderstood? Better off playing elsewhere? 

After posting frighteningly bad numbers during the 60-game season and then losing his job during the playoffs to backup Kyle Higashioka, there's even some question as to whether the Yankees will tender him a contract for 2021. Hard to believe after the splash he made when he arrived from the minor leagues in 2016 -- nearly winning Rookie of the Year honors after crushing 20 home runs in 53 games.

Mark Kotsay played 17 years in the majors. Though he put up good numbers with the Marlins, Padres and A's during the 2000s, he was considered "solid" rather than a star.

Julio Cruz spent a decade playing 2nd base, first with the Mariners, then the White Sox, where in 1983, he saw his only post-season action. He's spent the past 19 years calling Seattle's games in Spanish.

And we remember Deacon White, the 19th century barehanded catcher and infielder, who was posthumously inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2013 -- more than 120 years after he played his final game. While his career ended five years before Babe Ruth was born, and decades before newsreels or radio, this lifetime .312 hitter left a strong enough legacy to make the case for Cooperstown.

 

Chip Hale spent seven years as a backup player with the Twins and Dodgers and a pair of seasons (2015-'16) managing the Diamondbacks. Recently, he joined AJ Hinch's staff and will be the Tigers' 3rd base coach for 2021.