Will Cristopher Sanchez Be Even Better For The Phillies In 2025?

Cristopher Sanchez burst onto the scene in 2023 for the Phillies. They brought him up as a spot starter out of the minors, expecting he would be a band-aid while they figured out what to do with their 5th starter spot, after mixing and matching for much of the season. The thing is he pitched well, and he kept pitching well. By October he had a 3.44 ERA over 99 innings.

How did he follow that up in his 1st full season as a starter? He was even better. Sanchez pitched 181.2 innings across 31 starts and finished with a 3.32 ERA. He then took the mound in the playoffs and gave up 2 runs across 5 innings. He did not have his best stuff, but he battled and kept his team in it in a game they eventually won. It was the only game the Phillies won in that series.

Sanchez is not a fluke. He is not a strike out pitcher, at least not yet. But every other underlying stat paints the picture of his production over the past 2 years being legitimate. His barrel rate of just 5.4% is in the top 15% of all starters in the league. His groundball rate of 58.3% is in the top 5% of the league. Sanchez is a machine when it comes to generating weak contact and keeping the ball on the ground.

What is the key to his success? His changeup. He has thrown it 1,478 times in the last 2 seasons, and hitters only battled .161 off it. The SLG against it last season was .220, and it struck out 91 batters compared to just 50 hits. His slider was killer last year too, holding hitters to a BA of just .219.

But could he be even better in 2025? People around the league sure seem to think so.

ESPN recently published an article "10 players scouts are buzzing about" in Spring Training. Sanchez was one of the players highlighted.

It was actually his 2nd time on the list, having made it last Spring as well. He once again has scouts "buzzing" after working on the 1 weak pitch in his arsenal, the sinker people hit .345 off of, and adding a cutter.

"Sánchez's average sinker velocity last season was 94.5 mph; in his first start this spring, he sat 96 to 99, the product of added weight on his 6-foot-5 frame. He's got a new cutter, too, and with his fastball now in Tarik Skubal/Cole Ragans territory, the cutter to neutralize right-handed hitters and one of baseball's most dastardly changeups, he's primed to join them among the best left-handed pitchers in baseball."

Sanchez did not have crazy righty/lefty splits last season, but he did walk righties more often. Part of the problem was the lack of an out pitch vs them. The aforementioned sinker had a putaway rate of just 12.3%, and the cutter was used just 3 times all season.

But that sinker is coming in 2-3 miles faster now, and he looks poised to use the cutter more. Having an elite fast pitch will only help make the changeup and slider even more effective. If he can have 2, the sky is the limit for him. That could transform him from being a groundball pitcher to being a strikeout pitcher.

Jayson Stark was not there for Sanchez's 1st start. But he did talk to Garrett Stubbs who caught it, and Stark spoke to Ricky Bottalico on our Hot Stove special about how impressive Sanchez looked.

Zack Wheeler is a walking Cy Young candidate. Aaron Nola is just a notch below that. They added Jesus Luzardo, who has some of the best stuff for a lefty in the sport, plus there is Ranger Suarez who looked like the Cy Young winner through 2 months last season, and eventually the promise of Andrew Painter.

But now you have Cristopher Sanchez who might go from being very good like last year to being another Ace if you believe the hype around MLB circles. If he is as good as people in the MLB think he will be, the Phillies have a rotation that can rival even the Dodgers.

It is only 1 start in Spring training. But it is not the results that have people excited, it is how he looks. That jump in velo is significant. If he is pumping out pitches that fast in real games, Major League hitters will have a tough time dealing with him