CLEARWATER, Fla. \u2013 What a\u00a0run Cristopher Sanchez is on.<\/p>\n
Over the past six months, he finished up a career year for the Phillies that earned him a second-place finish in the National League Cy Young voting. He was named No. 1 starter for the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic and Phillies opening day starter.<\/p>\n
Four days before he will make that opening day start at Citizens Bank Park, he was rewarded with a new long-term contract on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The contract will take the 29-year-old left-hander through the 2032 season and includes a club option for 2033.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe consider (Sanchez) one of the best pitchers in Major League Baseball,\u201d Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said in announcing the deal. \u201cHe\u2019s pitched tremendously for us and we and look forward to him continuing to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unlike the case with Jesus Luzardo, who recently signed a five-year, $135 million contract extension to stay off next winter\u2019s free-agent market, the Phillies were under no great urgency to get a new deal done with Sanchez. He was already signed at a bargain total of $18 million through 2028 as part of a four-year deal signed in June 2024. That contract included club options for 2029 and 2030 at $14 million and $15 million, respectively. In the restructured deal, the Phillies guaranteed those two option years, added two more guaranteed years at $30 million per season, and included a club option for 2033 worth $32.5 million that can rise to $44.5 million with performance escalators.<\/p>\n
So, counting this season, Sanchez is guaranteed $107 million through 2032, when he will be 35.<\/p>\n
Dombrowski said both the Phillies and Sanchez\u2019 representatives were interested in restructuring the contract to match the pitcher\u2019s rise in status. Sanchez came to the Phillies in a minor-league trade before the 2020 season. At the time, he was a project. In subsequent years, he added velocity and command to his fastball, and developed one of the game\u2019s best changeups, on his way to becoming an ace.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we looked into the future, we kind of assumed we were going to pick those up,\u201d Dombrowski said of the 2029 and 2030 option years. \u201cWe couldn’t even imagine a scenario in which we wouldn’t, so now we start talking beyond that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dombrowski added that Sanchez\u2019 age, work ethic and commitment to craft all factored into the team\u2019s decision to build on the previous contract and make a longer, richer commitment to the pitcher.<\/p>\n
The commitment to Sanchez, and previously Luzardo, further illustrates the high premium that contending teams like the Phillies put on starting pitching. Zack Wheeler is signed through 2027 at $42 million per season. That\u2019s the highest single season salary in the game for a pitcher. Aaron Nola is signed for five more years at $24.5 million per season. With Sanchez, Luzardo, Nola and Andrew Painter, the Phils have four starters under control through at least 2030.<\/p>\n
Sanchez and his representatives pushed for the initial four-year, $22.5 million contract that the pitcher signed in June 2024 because they wanted financial security.<\/p>\n
Now, Sanchez has a lot more.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey rewarded my work,\u201d he said. \u201cIt’s just a great commitment. I appreciate the team doing this for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Baseball-Reference ranked Sanchez as the top starting pitcher in baseball with a WAR of 8.0 last season. He set personal bests in wins (13), ERA (2.50), innings (202) and strikeouts (212). The Phillies\u2019 starting staff led the majors with 84 quality starts, 12 more than any other team. Sanchez had 22 of them, which tied him for the most in baseball with Logan Webb and Garrett Crochet.<\/p>\n
Sanchez believes he can be even better this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cHard work, discipline and the support of my teammates,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to going back to the World Series and hopefully winning it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEARWATER, Fla. \u2013 What a\u00a0run Cristopher Sanchez is on. Over the past six months, he finished up a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637832,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2397],"tags":[5,4,144,25,4216,40,16702],"class_list":{"0":"post-637831","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-phillies","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-philadelphia","11":"tag-philadelphia-phillies","12":"tag-philadelphiaphillies","13":"tag-phillies","14":"tag-phillies-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116275009675361149","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}