Cristopher Sanchez Makes Cy Young-Caliber Statement on Opening Day

If you liked Cristopher Sanchez' Cy Young chances coming into Opening Day, you certainly like them even better after watching how Thursday played out.

Sanchez picked up right where he left off in 2025, dominating the Rangers over six scoreless innings, striking out 10 and putting only three men on base in the Phillies' 5-3 win. Two were first-inning singles. From there, Sanchez retired 15 of the final 16 batters he faced.

Earlier in the day, Paul Skenes was "lit up" by the Mets, allowing five runs in two-thirds of an inning. The quotes are used because Skenes didn't really get hit. Pirates centerfielder Oneil Cruz badly misplayed two balls in center field that generated all five runs. But neither counted as an error, so Skenes ends the day with a 67.50 ERA.

It won't take him long to reduce it substantially, of course. Six scoreless innings in Skenes' next start would get him to 6.75. He could be below 5.00 by his fourth start.

This is a nice head start, though. Skenes entered the season as Sanchez' top competitor for the National League Cy Young award. He won it last year and the Phillies' lefty was the runner-up. Both had stellar seasons. There was no right or wrong answer.

When you look at the rest of the starting pitching landscape around baseball, most of the best arms are either in the American League or on the Phillies. In the NL, Skenes, Sanchez and Zack Wheeler would be regarded as the top three starters. Logan Webb, who was pounded by the Yankees on Opening Night on Wednesday, would be close behind, as would Jesus Luzardo.

In the AL, there's Tarik Skubal, Garrett Crochet, Max Fried, Logan Gilbert, Bryan Woo, Hunter Brown, Jacob deGrom, Joe Ryan, George Kirby, Nate Eovaldi, Framber Valdez. It's much deeper in the Junior Circuit.

Still ascending, somehow

Sanchez' life has completely changed over the last three years. He was still unproven and considered wild until midway through 2023, when everything clicked in his third taste of the majors. He began a run of success that has shown no signs of ending, and including Thursday's start, Sanchez has a 2.96 ERA in 489 innings over that span.

Since the start of last season, Sanchez' ERA is 2.44, better than allowing two runs every seven innings.

He's made an All-Star team. He's started a home opener and now on Opening Day. He's pitched in key spots in the playoffs along the way. He was the Game 1 starter in the World Baseball Classic for his native Dominican Republic.

And he's been rewarded by the Phillies twice with contract extensions, the second of which guaranteed him $104 million through the end of 2032.

What's not to love?

Sanchez has all the attributes a team would want from a starting pitcher. He's tall, he's athletic, he repeats his mechanics, he has a simple delivery, he doesn't overthrow. He also has a good head on his shoulders. His journey to this point hasn't been lost on him. Nothing was given. He had to work extremely hard to get to this point.

Another major reason the Phillies felt so comfortable locking Sanchez up long-term was his overpowering arsenal of pitches.

His changeup has improved and improved and improved into the best in baseball. It's not hyperbole to refer to those pitches as the two best of their type in baseball. Sanchez' changeup limited hitters to a .167 batting average and two home runs last year in 305 at-bats that ended with the pitch. Using Fangraphs' pitch-type value metric, Sanchez' changeup has been the second-best in baseball the last two years, barely behind Tarik Skubal's.

His sinker graded out as by far the best in baseball in 2025, far ahead of Valdez and Crochet in the next two spots.

And his slider, used mostly against lefties, generated a swinging strike 46% of the time he threw it to them in 2025.

It's been a little while

The Phillies have had four pitchers win a Cy Young award: Steve Carlton four times, John Denny in 1983, closer Steve Bedrosian in 1987 and Roy Halladay in 2010.

Wheeler was a runner-up twice, in 2021 and 2024. He was robbed in 2021, losing out on the award in a close race to Corbin Burnes, who pitched 46 fewer innings.

Wheeler could be a candidate this season again, too, but he won't be making his season debut until at least mid-to-late April and might not be pushed quite as hard as he has been in the past.

Sanchez' next start is lined up for the sixth game of the Phillies' season, next Wednesday at home against the lowly Nationals. It's another potential smash spot for the Phillies' left-handed superstar.