When Gary Sánchez left the American League East in 2021, the Orioles were a 110-loss team that hadn’t finished with a winning record since his rookie year. Sánchez was a full-time starting catcher who had just hit 20 home runs for the fourth time in six seasons.

A lot has changed in three years.

The Orioles signed Sánchez to a one-year, $8.5 million deal this offseason to be their backup catcher behind Adley Rutschman and a right-handed hitter off the bench. It’s been a while since he was the All-Star player he was for the New York Yankees early in his career, but in Sánchez, the Orioles are garnering a now-veteran backstop more suited for the part-time role.

“Very excited,” said Sánchez through team interpreter Brandon Quinones of returning to the AL East in a video news conference Tuesday. “It’s a division where I started my professional career, so I feel like I know the stadiums very well. Yankee Stadium, Oriole Park, even Toronto. I’m very excited. I’m looking forward to getting back out here. I know the Orioles are a very competitive team. They’ve done a lot of great things these last couple of years, so I’m looking to join the race again and being competitive.”

Baltimore has indeed emerged from its rebuild to make the playoffs in back-to-back seasons with Rutschman a leading face in the club’s youth movement. Veteran backstop James McCann formed the other half of the Orioles’ catching tandem each of those years. While he was a valued veteran leader in the clubhouse, McCann’s defense graded out poorly by advanced metrics last season and he managed only a .657 OPS and 14 home runs with the Orioles.

Sánchez, 32, isn’t coming off a stellar season behind the plate, but he was an above-average defender each of the past two years — a stark difference from the player who led all catchers in errors three times with New York. He also has a 27.1% career caught-stealing percentage, an area both McCann and Rutschman struggled in last season.

“I think his defense has been improving continuously, especially in the past few years as he kind of matures into a veteran catcher,” Orioles executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias said at the winter meetings.

“He’s changed some of his receiving tactics a few years ago. He’s just getting to be a smarter, savvier player. He’s got a lot of arm strength … and we heard a lot of really good things about the way he was working with the pitching staff. It’s not something you always have to do, but it’s always good when you have one English-speaking catcher and one Spanish-speaking catcher. It’s always a nice feature.”

Sánchez said he would leave it up to manager Brandon Hyde on how the Orioles want to deploy him, whether that be at catcher, designated hitter or first base. He has appeared in only seven major league games at first base — and the Orioles have a right-handed Gold Glove Award finalist in Ryan Mountcastle manning the position — but his offensive upside is what could make him an improvement over McCann in his backup role.

Over the past two seasons, Sánchez has hit .235 with 16 home runs against left-handed pitchers. His .829 OPS in those situations ranks 10th among catchers with at least 150 plate appearances over that span. (Rutschman ranks fourth at .899.) Hyde frequently used Rutschman at the DH spot and started McCann against lefties, including for Game 1 of the AL wild-card round with the Kansas City Royals’ Cole Ragans on the mound, but McCann put up reverse splits faring better against right-handers than lefties.

“I think it’ll be a lot of fun and I think I can really learn from him,” Sánchez said of playing with Rutschman. “Just because someone spends a lot of time in the major leagues doesn’t mean that you can stop learning. So, I’m looking forward to learning from him and I’m looking forward to him learning from me as well and us working with each other. I’m really looking forward to us having the opportunity to really help this team win and get along. I haven’t really met him yet but I’m looking forward to meeting him soon and getting to work with him.”

The AL East landscape isn’t the same as what it was when Sánchez was in New York, but neither is he. Once a player who publicly questioned why the Yankees were benching him in the playoffs, Sánchez has developed more of a veteran mindset after bouncing around between teams and having to resurrect his career. The Orioles want him to play a different role in their quest to retake the division title from his former team and he’s relishing the opportunity to help.

“I think they have really good chemistry and for me it’s an honor to be part of this team now,” Sánchez said. “They have a lot of great, young talent, a real exciting group, and I’m just looking forward to going out there and helping any way that I can to support this team and help this team win.”

Baltimore Sun reporter Jacob Calvin Meyer contributed to this article. Have a news tip? Contact Matt Weyrich at mweyrich@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/ByMattWeyrich.