For me the bottom line is this. Before Merrifield made contact with Sanchez, he had possession of the ball. Even if it was a split second before, he had the ball. There is no block if he has the ball, that’s is the rule! So no matter where Sanchez was since he had the ball, he has a right to the baseline. These same umpires in NY made another similar call in the Orioles Pirates game. They got that one wrong too. The catcher caught the ball before the runner made contact. He has to be called out. These two particular umps in NY need to be fired.
Baseball is a game of bang bang plays, in both cases the catchers had the ball before contact is made, a split second before maybe, but before is before. It would help if umpires actually understood the rules.
There is an easy fix for this. Make the catcher blocking the plate rule non reviewable and leave it up to the umps on the field.