One of the Best Trades and Contracts in Phillies History

Two springs ago, Cristopher Sanchez was talked up around baseball as a potential breakout candidate.

He then broke out, pitching 181⅔ innings with a 3.32 ERA in his first full season in the majors. He made his first All-Star team, finished 10th in National League Cy Young voting and formed baseball's most formidable quartet of starting pitchers along with Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola and Ranger Suarez.

Last spring, Sanchez was talked up again by the Phillies and nationally as a candidate to reach a higher level. It wasn't just based on the promise he had shown during the second half of 2023 and all of 2024, it was his repertoire.

Major weapons

Sanchez has had the most stifling left-handed changeup in baseball since his recall from Triple A midway through 2023, based on opponent success, swings-and-misses, weak contact and overall run values associated with each pitch type.

He has a sinker that rose in velocity from 92.1 mph in 2023 to 94.5 the next year.

He has a slider that kept improving to become a third legitimate out pitch against same-handed hitters.

Nearly unmatched in '25

Sanchez indeed reached that higher level in 2025, posting a 2.50 ERA in 202 innings with tremendous strikeout (212), walk (44) and home run (12) numbers. He finished second in NL Cy Young voting. He accrued a massive 8.0 WAR, per Baseball-Reference, to lead all of Major League Baseball.

"His command of the baseball has gotten so good over the years. And with that, he's gotten so confident, he knows himself as a pitcher," catcher J.T. Realmuto told John Clark on this week's Takeoff podcast.

"He's not up there chucking the ball. When he first got here, it was a little more of like like, let's aim down the middle and let it rip and hopefully good things happen. Now, he's setting guys up, he's using the changeup when he wants to for strikes and for chase. He mixes the fastball to both sides of the plate.

"He's become a full starting pitcher where he's manipulating lineups and attacking guys different ways each at-bat. That all comes with his command and confidence to be able to do what he does."

Only increasing in importance

Sanchez will almost certainly be the Phillies' Opening Day starter in 2026 with Wheeler out until at least late April as he ramps up from September thoracic outlet syndrome surgery. By all accounts, Wheeler is making solid progress so far in camp.

It would be difficult to improve upon the second-best pitching season to Paul Skenes from a year ago, but Sanchez' arsenal will continue to make it possible.

Grading each pitch

Sanchez' bread-and-butter 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.

Typically, a pitcher doesn't use his changeup against same-handed hitters because the angle of the fade action is not as effective, but Sanchez' is such a weapon that he does not care. Lefties have hit .172 against the pitch the last two seasons.

The pitch he uses the most, of course, is his sinker. And that is also an elite, elite pitch. Sanchez' sinker graded out as by far the best in baseball in 2025, miles ahead of Framber Valdez and Garrett Crochet in the Nos. 2 and 3 spots.

And Sanchez' slider generated a whiff last season nearly half the time (46.2%) that a lefty swung at it.

Such a steal

Simply put, he's become one of the best pitchers in baseball. As long as Sanchez can stay healthy, his 2019 acquisition from the Tampa Bay Rays for infielder Curtis Mead will go down as one of the best trades in Phillies history.

Back then, Sanchez was one of many fireballers across the sport who had velocity and upside but lacked control and command. The Phillies pushed him away from using his four-seam fastball and more toward the sinker. Things didn't click right away. He had a 5.47 ERA in his first 22 major-league appearances in 2021 and 2022. But when he joined the Phillies' rotation on June 17, 2023 in Oakland, he delivered four scoreless innings and has never looked back.

The Phillies also have him under a great contract. They extended Sanchez in the summer of 2024 with a four-year, $22.5 million contract that runs through 2028 but also includes team options for 2029 ($14M) and 2030 ($15M).

That extension bought out Sanchez' final pre-arbitration year and all three of the years he would have been eligible for arbitration. The two team options cover what would potentially be his first two seasons after free-agent eligibility.

So, all told, the Phillies have one of baseball's best under control for just $3M this season, $6M in 2027, $9M in 2028, $14M in 2029 and $15M in 2030. That's $47 million over five seasons, an absolute steal but also the kind of life-changing guarantee Sanchez didn't want to pass up.

Two different Phillies front offices are responsible for obtaining Sanchez and extending him. Former GM Matt Klentak acquired him from Tampa Bay in his penultimate season in Philadelphia, and Dave Dombrowski was in charge when the team extended him five years later.