Cristopher Sanchez Gets Snubbed By All-MLB 1st Team Vote
Cristopher Sanchez is not the flashiest pitcher in the league. He is not throwing 100 mph fastballs and is not the new young phenom. So he tends not to grab…
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA – OCTOBER 04: Cristopher Sanchez #61 of the Philadelphia Phillies looks on after the third out in the fourth inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers in game one of the Division Series at Citizens Bank Park on October 04, 2025 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
(Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty Images)Cristopher Sanchez is not the flashiest pitcher in the league. He is not throwing 100 mph fastballs and is not the new young phenom. So he tends not to grab National headlines despite pitching better than almost anyone in the league. But make no mistake, he is one of the league's premier pitchers. It is just a shame people don't always treat him like it.
Sanchez did finish 2nd in NL Cy Young voting. That part is not a problem. Paul Skenes deserved to win after keeping his ERA under 2.0 over 32 starts. The problem is the All-MLB Teams. 5 starting pitchers get named to the team every year. And somehow Sanchez got relegated to the Second Team.
Here is a quick look at Cristopher Sanchez's stats and where they rank among MLB pitchers
- 2.50 ERA (5th in MLB)
- 212 Ks (7th)
- 22 Quality Starts (1st)
- 202 IPs (2nd)
- 8.0 WAR (1st)
How exactly does Sanchez get more Cy Young votes than Yamamoto, but not more All-MLB votes? Sanchez has better stats in almost every category than Max Fried, but Fried gets the nod over him?
It makes no sense. There is no way of looking at this season and coming to the conclusion that Sanchez is not one of the 5 best pitchers. He leads the entire league in WAR, which is the modern era's favorite stat.
It is not the 1st time he got overlooked, either. Remember, Cristopher Sanchez was not an All-Star. Not even a replacement. They picked a rookie with 5 starts who finished the year with an ERA over 4.0 over Sanchez. And people around the league defended it. They said Jacob Misiorowski was "more exciting."
The facts are clear. Sanchez is a top 5 pitcher. The voters seem to be judging players by something other than their actual performance on the mound.
Sanchez being a late bloomer hurts him. He does not have that aura of the phenom who people have followed since he was a teenager. His MLB debut was not an event. Sanchez is a pitcher who started slow and had to improve. So he gets overlooked. But there is still no excuse for him not getting the respect he deserves.
