The Philadelphia Phillies have one of the best starting rotations in MLB. Their consistency as a group makes them especially unique with multiple top pitchers on the same staff. Left-hander Cristopher Sánchez is among the top horses for the Phillies and has performed beyond expectations in 2025. Even with his performance, he's still flying under the radar.
Sánchez has seemingly performed even better so far this season than in his All-Star campaign of 2024. Sánchez was snubbed from the Midsummer Classic this year, but that hasn't stopped him from being a top pitcher in the National League. He has been on an absolute heater.
Phillies' new ace Cristopher Sánchez deserves more recognition outside Philadelphia
Per Scott Lauber of The Philadelphia Inquirer, Sánchez's historic rise has been anything but a flash in the pan. He has been among the best pitchers in the sport since being recalled for a start in June 2023, with a few compelling stats supporting his case.
The #Phillies recalled Cristopher Sánchez for what amounted to a spot start on 6/17/23 in Oakland. Since then, here's where he ranks among all starters:
— Scott Lauber (@ScottLauber) July 23, 2025
Groundball rate- 2nd (57.9%)
ERA- 4th (3.03)
fWAR- 4th (9.9)
FIP- 5th (3.15)
Innings- 8th (400.2)
Sánchez is known for being a ground ball pitcher, but to hold the second-highest rate (57.9 percent) is mind-blowing. His ERA has also continued to plummet as he has gotten more comfortable working with pitching coach Caleb Cotham. Now, with his strikeout rate jumping 6.4 percentage points from last year, Sánchez has added a level of dominance that Phillies fans haven't seen before. He's become a truly elite starter and one of the more valued in the sport, which is why he's trusted so much by Phillies manager Rob Thomson.
He's become a more efficient pitcher, and over the last few years, he's proven to be worth the contract extension he signed. It's hard to become the face of the Phillies rotation when you always have Wheeler in front of you, but Sánchez can certainly carve out his own little piece of history with how improbable his stretch has been from late 2023 until now.
Cristopher Sánchez has inserted himself into the NL Cy Young race
The NL Cy Young race is a competitive one with the likes of Paul Skenes, Logan Webb, Matthew Boyd and Phillies ace Zack Wheeler. Sánchez, with his dominant outing on Tuesday night, again proved that he's a man on a mission and has remained one of the best pitchers in the sport, per MLB.com's Todd Zolecki.
He pitched a complete game, giving up four hits, one run, no walks and struck out 12 batters. He also dropped his season ERA to a 2.40 ERA, per Noah Levick of NBC Sports Philadelphia, which is good for fourth-best in the NL. He's putting together a Cy Young campaign of his own.
Per OptaSTATS, his recent seven-game stretch is equaled by only two pitchers in MLB history: Greg Maddux and Clayton Kershaw. That's pretty good company for the 28-year-old.
Cristopher Sánchez is 1 of 3 MLB pitchers to have a 7-start span with:
— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) July 23, 2025
undefeated record
sub-1.50 ERA
50+ innings pitched
50+ strikeouts
fewer than 5 walks
no more than 1 HR allowed
The others are Greg Maddux and Clayton Kershaw. pic.twitter.com/BzYca66OFJ
There's a reason Sánchez started Game 2 of the NLDS last year, and with him even better now, there's dwindling doubt he will be positioned otherwise this fall. He has been not just a valuable pitcher for the Phillies but one of the best pitchers in baseball, and he's still refining his skills.