Oct 4, 2024:  Cristopher Sánchez did enough last year to earn the final spot in the Phillies' rotation this season. e took that opportunity and turned it into a life-changing contract extension signed in late June, his first National League Pitcher of the Month Award a couple weeks later and his first career All-Star selection in July.

Now, he'll be the Phillies' Game 2 starter against the Mets in the National League Division Series at Citizens Bank Park. Aaron Nola will start Game 3 at Citi Field.

"Just looking at playing the Mets, going into Citi Field, I think it's going to be a pretty hostile environment," manager Rob Thomson said on Friday afternoon. "And looking at Sánchez's home/road splits, I just thought it was really the smartest thing to do."
 
Sánchez pitched like a bona fide ace at home this season, going 7-3 with a 2.21 ERA in 17 starts. Over the past 40 seasons, only three Phillies pitchers posted a 2.21 home ERA or better in a single season (minimum 15 starts): Cliff Lee (1.94 in 2011), Roy Halladay (2.21 in '10) and Curt Schilling (2.21 in 1992).
 
But pitching on the road was a different story. Sánchez went 4-6 with a 5.02 ERA in 14 outings away from the Bank.
 
“I have to work on that and get better at that, because I’ve noticed,” Sánchez said a few weeks ago. “I’ve checked the numbers and they’re not so good on the road. I think that’s something I have to work on to get better.” (P Casella - MLB.com - Oct 4, 2024)

2013: The Rays signed LHP Cristopher Sanchez at age 16 as an international free agent out of the Dominican Republic, via scout Daniel Santana. His bonus was $65,000.  

A roster crunch in Tampa Bay has led to an opportunity with the Phillies for lefthander Cristopher Sanchez.

The prospect-rich Rays added five players to their 40-man roster in November but were unable to find room for the 23-year-old. He seemed to be a sure bet to go in the Rule 5 draft until the Phillies grabbed him in a trade on Nov. 20 and put him on their 40-man roster.

In order to pull off the deal for Sanchez, the Phillies parted ways with 19-year-old Australian third baseman Curtis Mead.

"We’re excited about him,” general manager Matt Klentak said. "Power stuff from the left side. Our scouts identified him early last season and stayed on him and really pounded the table for us to acquire him.”

Sanchez, who signed with the Rays for $65,000 out of the Dominican Republic in 2013, has a reedy, 6-foot-5, 165-pound frame with a side-saddle delivery, similar to that of David Price. (Jim Salisbury - Baseball America - Feb. 2020) 

In 2021, the Baseball America Prospect Handbook rated Sanchez as the 18th-best prospect in the Phillies organization. But he fell to #26 in the spring of 2022. 

July 3, 2024: Cristopher Sánchez was named NL Pitcher of the Month for June 2024.

Sánchez is in the midst of his first full season starting for the Phillies, and what a year it’s been. He compiled 16 scoreless innings across his past two starts, including a three-hit shutout with nine strikeouts against the Marlins on Friday. Sánchez claimed his first Pitcher of the Month honor thanks to a 1.64 ERA in 33 innings in June, further cementing himself as part of a strong Phillies rotation that includes Ranger Suárez (April’s NL Pitcher of the Month), Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola. (T DeRosa - MLB.com - July 3, 2024)

 July 13, 2024: Sánchez was selected to the NL All-Star team. The 27-year-old is replacing Atlanta Braves lefty Chris Sale

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July 2013: The Rays signed LHP Cristopher Sanchez at age 16 as an international free agent out of the Dominican Republic, via scout Daniel Santana. His bonus was $65,000.

Sanchez touts an exciting skill set highlighted by FASTBALL velocity that steadily resides in the 94-98 mph area and features remarkable movement. He regularly clocks triple digits as well. He also has a low-80s CHANGEUP up and a mid-80s SLIDER in his repertoire that he is looking to refine and get to a big-league-ready level. 

Sanchez relies on a mid-90s fastball with sinking life that comes in on hitters looking like a changeup due to his crossfire three-quarters delivery. His delivery hurts his fastball command, and the pitch was hit hard at the big league level.

His mid-80s slider is his best off-speed offering, a pitch he uses to attack righthanded hitters down and in. It flashes above-average to plus. His changeup is a below-average offering with little movement and deception. Sanchez’s lack of a third pitch and below-average control make it likely he’ll end up in a bullpen role long term. (C Hilburn - BA Prospect Handbook - Spring 2022)

The star of Sanchez’s repertoire is a two-seam fastball that he can crank up in velo. It has incredible run to it, a big reason why he’s posted very high groundball rates over the course of his career. His best secondary pitch might be his changeup, thrown with a split grip, that Sanchez does a nice job of selling and killing spin with, providing big separation from his fastball. His sweeping slider gives him a third at least average offering, and he’s worked on a spike grip for a curveball as well.

Command had been a huge obstacle for the 6-foot-5 left-hander, though he took a nice step forward in lowering his walk rate during that 2019 breakout and the Phillies were pleased with the strike-throwing progress he showed last year. While his ultimate role is yet to be determined, he does have the look of a middle reliever, perhaps one who can soak up multiple innings. (Spring 2021)

Sanchez is a power pitcher with an electric fastball. His low three-quarters delivery makes it hard for hitters to see the ball, but it also hurts his command. His slider flashes above-average to plus at times and works down and in on righties. His changeup has little movement, and he struggles to command it. And his control remains below-average. (Spring 2021) 

Sanchez’s stuff ticked upwards during his breakout 2019 campaign. He’s now coming at hitters with a fastball in the upper 90's consistently and he backs that up with a sweeping slider and an improved changeup. All of it comes from his tall, gangly, 6-foot-5 frame and it’s hard for hitters to pick the ball up coming out of Sanchez’s hand.

The southpaw was able to repeat his delivery more consistently in 2019, which led to him finding the strike zone more consistently and lowering his walk rate. His command within the zone also improved and he missed more bats and continued to get a lot of weak contact on the ground. It remains to be seen what Sanchez’s long-term role is -- he both started and relieved last year. But his acquisition made him one of the more intriguing lefties in the Phillies' system. (Spring 2020)

Cristopher is a lefthanded power pitcher with the ability to miss bats and keep the ball on the ground.

2013-14 Seasons: Signed for a reported $65,000 by the Rays in 2013 at age of 16, Sanchez would go on to make his professional debut in the Dominican Summer League the following year.  In 13 outings that season, he notched a 7.77 ERA.  The Rays would have him repeat the league twice.  In 41 total appearances there, Sanchez collected an 8-7 record with a 4.15 ERA, 6.1 K/9 and 3.8 BB/9. 

2018 Season: He opened the year back in extended spring training and went the short-season route with Princeton once more.  Pitching exclusively as a starter at this point, as a 21-year-old, Sanchez looked better, tallying a 3-2 record with a 4.60 ERA over 10 outings.  The Rays would promote him to wrap up their season and he joined Hudson Valley of the New York-Penn League.  In two regular season starts, he went 1-0 with a 4.00 ERA.  Overall that season, Sanchez collected a .302 BAA, a 7.8 K/9 mark and a 4.7 BB/9.

2019 Season: Sanchez played full-season ball for the first time.  He opened the campaign with Class A Bowling Green, where he again split time as a reliever and a starter.  In 11 games (four starts), he had a 3-1 record with two saves, a 2.01 ERA, a .190 batting average against and a 0.97 WHIP.  

He would earn a promotion to Class A Advanced Charlotte and posted a 1-0 record, a 1.85 ERA, a .231 batting average against, as well as a 1.21 WHIP in 12 appearances (six starts).  He ended the season with an appearance at Triple-A Durham.  Overall, in 24 games, Sanchez recorded an 8.7 K/9 mark and a 3.1 BB/9 mark.

His splits that year did not clearly favor one role over the other, as with Bowling Green he tallied a 0.83 ERA out of the bullpen and a 3.38 mark as a starter.  Then with Charlotte his ERA was just about a full run better in the rotation (1.54 ERA as a starter, 2.53 ERA in relief).

2020 Season: Prior to the pandemic year, Sanchez pitched in a pair of Phillies spring training games, allowing three earned runs over 1 1/3 innings while striking out three and uncorking two wild pitches.

2021 Season: When the Phillies acquired Sanchez for Curtis Mead, he was still very raw as a pitcher. A casualty of a Tampa system with too many players to protect, his meteoric rise through their system in 2019 hid just how little upper minors experience he had. The lost 2020 season meant that the bulk of his 2021 was going to come down to just getting high level innings. At times he looked competent as a starter, but often was undone by poor command or too many trips through the order.

He sits 92-95 with his fastball and has gotten up to 98 in the past. He has a solid changeup that has become a bit of a weapon and will unleash some sliders that will make you think it could be a weapon. In a bullpen role he could ideally stick in the higher range of his velocity, and possibly be less prone to some of the control problems over the course of games.

He is very unlikely to reach the high leverage heights that Ranger Suarez did in 2021, let alone the re-transition to the rotation. But he could get the Phillies 2-3 innings and bridge a game from the starters to later innings.  (Feb 14, 2022 — M. Winkelman)

2022 Season: Sánchez, 26, only has four big league starts to his name. He’s come out of the bullpen 18 times at the MLB level and has logged 52 2/3 innings over the last two seasons. He owns a 5.47 ERA with worse than average strikeout and walk marks (20.3% and 10.2%, respectively). On the plus side, he’s racked up grounders on a massive 56.4% of batted balls.

The 6’1″ hurler has spent the bulk of the last two years starting games for Triple-A Lehigh Valley. He struggled with walks en route to a 4.68 ERA there in 2021 but had a much more productive showing last season. Over 57 1/3 innings spanning 15 appearances, the Dominican-born southpaw posted a 3.14 ERA with a 24.4% strikeout percentage, 8.4% walk rate and eye-opening 62% grounder percentage.

While Sánchez hasn’t had much MLB success to date, he’s in the back of the rotation and/or long relief mix thanks to his quality Triple-A showing.  (Anthony Franco | February 8, 2023)

2023 Season: The Phils were hopeful top prospect Andrew Painter would fill the fifth starter spot this season. But his arm injuries left a void that Sanchez was eventually able to fill. The left-hander came out of nowhere to post a 3.48 ERA in 18 starts, showing elite control and fanning nearly one batter per inning. 

 Cristopher Sánchez has allowed just one home run in 70 1/3 innings. That’s a rate of 0.13 HR/9. The expansion-era record is .16, by Reggie Cleveland of the Red Sox in 1976. (Rosenthal - Jun 14, 2024 - The Athletic)

June 29, 2024: Sánchez registered his first career complete game shutout in a 2-0 win over the Miami Marlins.