Phillies' Cristopher Sanchez Egregiously Snubbed From First Team All-MLB Honors

The list of times the Phillies' star has been disrespected by the league continues to grow

Oct 4, 2025; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Cristopher Sanchez (61) looks on before game one against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLDS round for the 2025 MLB playoffs at Citizens Bank Park. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images | Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

Just one day after being the unanimous runner-up in the National League Cy Young Award race, Philadelphia Phillies' ace Cristopher Sanchez was named a Second-Team All-MLB member for his performance in the 2025 season.

On the surface, the recognition is a major honor and yet another accolade to the Philadelphia southpaw's blossoming MLB career. Sanchez has skyrocketed from an unreliable arm bouncing between relief and starting appearances to unquestionably one of the best starting pitchers in the league. His changeup is as elite a pitch as it gets, his entire arsenal is deadly, and he has proven time and time again that he's more than built for the brightest lights.

There is one major problem, however. How does the unanimous second-best pitcher in the National League not find himself among the five starters making up the First-Team All-MLB rotation that was released on Thursday night?

Sanchez's Snub is Unacceptable

Let's dissect the five pitchers that were listed ahead of Sanchez and beat him out for First-Team honors.

The two obvious ones, Pittsburgh Pirates' Paul Skenes and Detroit Tigers' Tarik Skubal, the NL and AL Cy Young Award winners respectively, cannot be argued. Skenes posted a simply ridiculous 1.97 Earned Run Average and 216 strikeouts across 187.2 innings, accumulating the second-highest Wins Above Replacement among all pitchers with 7.7 (per Baseball Reference). Similar praise can be given to the Tigers' superstar in Skubal, as his 2.21 ERA and whopping 241 strikeouts in 195.1 innings saw him finish with 6.5 WAR en route to his second consecutive Cy Young Award.

The third starter listed, Boston Red Sox's Garrett Crochet, also posted a 2025 campaign worthy of the honor. Crochet's 6.3 WAR finished just behind Skubal, and he cruised to a sub-2.60 ERA with 255 strikeouts in 205.1 innings in his first season in Boston.

Then it gets hard to comprehend.

Los Angeles Dodgers' Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who finished 70 points behind Sanchez in Cy Young voting, was named the fourth starter in the rotation. It doesn't take heavy analysis to argue that the pitcher who was viewed by the expert voting panel as substantially better should have made the list, and the fact that this is not the case is truly puzzling.

It only gets more confusing when looking at the fifth and final SP, New York Yankees' Max Fried. To say that Fried didn't post elite numbers would be an outright lie, and it's not difficult to deduce why he was in consideration. With that being said, Sanchez's numbers dwarf his in just about every important statistical category.

Sanchez, on top of leading all pitchers with 8.0 WAR, posted better stats than Fried in each of the following areas: Innings Pitched, ERA, Strikeouts, Walks, WHIP, and FIP. The two also tied for games started and losses, with Fried's only legitimate advantage being his six more wins.

Can we put our Cal Raleigh and Aaron Judge opinions to the side for a moment and talk about how ridiculous it is that Max Fried made the All-MLB First Team over Cristopher Sánchez? pic.twitter.com/txnv8pK87M

— MLB Hall of Pretty Good (@hallofgoodpod) November 14, 2025

The more time passes, the stranger that Cristopher Sanchez's 2025 season will look. The lefty wasn't named an All-Star, posted debatedly the third-best overall season of any starting pitcher, was unanimously voted second place for the NL Cy Young Award, and failed to make the First-Team All-MLB Team.

MLB's disrespect of Sanchez only continues to grow, and Phillies fans are left wondering how the league will refuse to give him the appreciation he deserves next.