CARLSBAD, Calif. — Gary Sanchez will be a dreaded “rehabilitation player” in spring training, although the Yankees hope to have their everyday catcher behind the plate for Opening Day.

Brian Cashman announced Wednesday, at the general managers’ meetings, that Sanchez will undergo a cleanup procedure of his left shoulder in the next week. Yankees head team physician Christopher Ahmad will perform the surgery.

“His shoulder has bothered him off and on since ’17,” Cashman said. “He’s been treated conservatively with it. He had an injection [of cortisone] toward the end of ’17. He had two in ’18. And he just resumed workouts and still felt a little bit lingering from it.”

The downtime after the surgery should be three months, Cashman said; hence the Yankees’ general manager’s optimism Sanchez will have enough spring-training time to prepare for the team’s season opener March 28 against the Orioles at Yankee Stadium.

Asked whether Sanchez’s shoulder problem led to his poor offensive showing in 2018, Cashman said, “It might have. It bothered him from time to time. When it did, he would complain about it and he’d get assessed. He had MRIs that didn’t show anything overtly.”