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

Nov 12, 2025: Sánchez's breakout year earns unanimous NL Cy Young runner-up behind Paul Skenes. Sánchez received all 30 second-place votes to finish with 120 points. 

TRANSACTIONS|

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.

Nov. 20, 2019:  The Phillies traded infielder Curtis Mead to the Rays for LHP Christopher Sanchez.  

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)

2024 Season: Sanchez started 2023 at AAA with losing stats (4.35 ERA, 1.450 WHIP, and 44 strikeouts over 49.2 innings) while walking 5.3 batters per nine. Somehow, after a promotion to the majors, he threw the most strikes of his career. Over eight starts in June and July, Sanchez posted a 2.30 ERA, 0.837 WHIP, .194 BAA, six walks, and 38 strikeouts over 43.0 innings. He struggled on August 5th (six runs, seven baserunners, one home run, and seven strikeouts over five innings), followed by a competitive final 47 innings (3.45 ERA, 1.149 WHIP, and 48 strikeouts over 47.0 innings).

In his first full season in the majors, Sanchez outperformed his WHIP (1.244) in ERA (3.32) while having a weaker strikeout rate (7.6 – 20.3%). On the positive side, he continues to show command (first-pitch strikeout rate – 66 and walk rate – 2.2). 

Sanchez went 6-3 over his first 16 starts, leading to a 2.41 ERA, 1.189 WHIP, and 79 strikeouts over 93.1 innings. He had three disaster showings (20 runs, 31 baserunners, and two home runs over 14.1 innings with 14 strikeouts) over his next seven games (6.63 ERA and 1.658 WHIP). His arm rebounded over his final 50.1 innings (2.50 ERA, 1.033 WHIP, and 49 strikeouts).  (Shawn Childs | Feb 12, 2025 - SI)

2025 Season: Cristopher Sanchez has put the league on notice. If his 2024 campaign of a 3.32 ERA in 181.2 innings wasn’t enough, he’s emerged as a true superstar pitcher across Major League Baseball in 2025. He’d be the #1 ace on a lot of teams. Right now, he’s the ace of the Phillies. Usually? He’s the Phillies’ #2.

Sanchez has some of the best composure I’ve ever seen from a starting pitcher. The moment is never too big. He never gets too high, and he never gets too low. He shows emotion when it’s warranted, or he feels it, but he’s calm, cool, and collected 24/7 on the pitchers mound.

He dazzled in 2025. He finished the regular season with a 13-5 record with an 8.0 WAR. He’s top 10 in all of baseball, including position players, in fWAR. He tallied a 1.06 WHIP in 202 innings with a 2.50 ERA, striking out 212 batters while walking just 44.

“It goes back a few years now. His stuff, one. His development of the changeup. His command. The power. The poise. He’s just a complete pitcher,” said Rob Thomson. And that’s been an evolution over the last couple of years. When Wheels went down, we told everyone to be themselves, which is good enough, and they were, especially him.” (Luke Arcaini - Sep 29th, 2025 - Crossing Broad)

 “This is the third time in Phillies postseason history they’ve held their opponent scoreless through six innings in a game facing elimination, joining: 1993 WS G5, Curt Schilling 1976 NLCS G3, Jim Kaat,” Langs wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

A pure lottery ticket addition by trade with the Tampa Bay Rays in 2019, he finally made it onto the MLB roster in 2021 and 2021, struggling as both a starter and reliever in brief stints.

Sanchez's development accelerated into becoming a quality starter in 2023, took a step forward in 2024, and skyrocketed to the upper echelon of MLB starting pitchers with his performance in 2025. Across 32 starts and 202.0 innings pitched, he posted a 2.50 Earned Run Average, allowing just over one batter to reach per inning, and striking out 212.

Cristopher Sanchez Named All-MLB Pitcher
Bleacher Report's Joel Reuter released their official All-MLB team for the 2025 season on Wednesday morning, and Sanchez was among the five starters listed.

Behind Pittsburgh Pirates' Paul Skenes, Detroit Tigers' Tarik Skubal, and Boston Red Sox' Garrett Crochet, Sanchez landed at the #4 spot, receiving loads of praise from Reuter's analysis.

"The 28-year-old tied for the MLB lead with 22 quality starts while leading all pitchers with 8.0 WAR, and his strikeout rate jumped from 20.3 to 26.3 percent," Reuter said. "His changeup was one of the best pitches in baseball, generating a 45.1 percent whiff rate and accounting for 130 of his 212 strikeouts."

The underlying data tells a similar story. His Baseball Savant page is about as bright red as it can be, with just about all of his metrics reaching high-percentile marks. Sanchez's pitching run value finished in the 99th percentile, with an 88th percentile Expected ERA and 85th percentile Whiff%, just to name a handful of his top results. (Ian Harper | Oct. 29, 2025 - SI)