Gary Sánchez power surge

Gary Sánchez opened the 2026 season with five home runs in his first 15 games for Milwaukee, putting his early power back in the spotlight. (fanduel.com) FanDuel Research listed Sánchez at five homers through April 19, a rate of 33.3% of games. ESPN’s game log showed the same total, with home runs on March 29, March 31, April 5, April 12 and April 14. (fanduel.com) (espn.com) That run pushed Sánchez into daily home run prop markets, where FanDuel posted him at +370 to homer on April 16 against Toronto. In that same April 16 market, FanDuel described him as having five home runs in 12 games, or 41.7% of his appearances to that point. (fanduel.com) Home run props are single-game bets on whether a player will go deep that day, so a short burst of power can move a hitter near the top of a board quickly. FanDuel’s April 19 research used Sánchez’s early-season homer rate as a headline stat in its daily pricing. (fanduel.com) The surge stands out because Sánchez was not signed as Milwaukee’s everyday centerpiece. The Brewers brought him back on a one-year deal with a mutual option for 2027 on February 14, and MLB.com said he was returning for a second stint with the club. (mlb.com 1) (mlb.com 2) Milwaukee added Sánchez for power from a position where that skill is still scarce. In the club’s February 14 announcement, the Brewers said Sánchez ranked third among Major League catchers in home runs since 2016, with 155 entering the 2026 season. (mlb.com) His April stat line showed how concentrated that production was. ESPN listed Sánchez with a.257 average, a 1.161 on-base plus slugging percentage, 12 walks and 35 at-bats through the April 16 game log snapshot. (espn.com) The sample is still small in late April, and prop prices can swing fast when one more homer changes a rate by several percentage points. For now, Sánchez’s first two weeks turned a backup catcher into one of the more closely watched names on the daily home run board. (fanduel.com 1) (fanduel.com 2)