Philadelphia Phillies Underrated Starter Has Delivered on Potential

The Philadelphia Phillies southpaw has become exactly the player everyone hoped he would.

Sep 20, 2024; New York City, New York, USA; Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Cristopher Sanchez (61) pitches against the New York Mets during the first inning at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images / Brad Penner-Imagn Images

The Philadelphia Phillies already had a staff of a couple of aces, but had yet another pitcher breakout into stardom this season.

Jim Bowden of The Athletic examined the best breakout players of the year and Phillies southpaw Cristopher Sanchez came in at No. 14 on the list.

"Philadelphia awarded Sanchez a four-year, $22.5 million contract extension in June that’s looking more and more like a club-friendly deal," said Bowden. "His changeup has become a wipeout pitch; opposing batters are hitting just .180 against it. He ranks in the 98th percentile in chase rate because hitters can’t lay off the pitch in or out of the strike zone."

He was an international signing back in 2013 when the Tampa Bay Rays picked him up for just $65,000. The Rays went on to trade him to the Phillies in exchange for Curtis Mead back in 2019.

Mead posted a .238/,282/.287 slashing line in 2024 for Tampa Bay this season before getting sent back down to the minor leagues, where it has looked more promising.

Sanchez grew to be the No.22 prospect in the Philadelphia farm system and made his debut in 2021. He was just okay, if not downright disappointing, as a rookie when was mostly used as a reliever.

He followed that up by delivering his first really solid season as a starting pitcher in MLB. In 18 starts, he had a 3.48 ERA and batters posted just a .237/.273/.425 slashing line against him.

The Dominican Republic native stepped up once again with his first All-Star nod this year and has posted great starts fairly consistently over 31 games.

Over the past month or so, he has taken things up a notch with a 2.50 ERA over his last eight starts.

He doesn't strike out a lot of players, but is one of the best pitchers in the league at getting batters to chase bad balls and converting those swings into easy groundouts.

Combining the fact that he rarely gets hit hard and doesn't hand out many free bases makes it easy to see why he's turned a corner this season.

Now, he'll have to prove that he can do it on the big stage. He was barely used in the postseason last year, but that won't be the case again.

Thanks to the recent shaky play of Ranger Suarez, Sanchez may need to step up to be the third guy in the rotation.

If this entire season has been any indication, he should be up to the task.