The Phillies have announced a contract extension for left-hander Cristopher Sanchez, as first reported by Robert Murray of FanSided. It’s a six-year deal that runs from 2027 through 2032 and includes a club option for the 2033 season. The Athletic’s Matt Gelb reports that the deal guarantees Sanchez $107MM, including the $3.5MM salary the southpaw is set to make in 2026. Francys Romero of Beisbol FR reports that the deal also includes “more than $13MM” in performance incentives. Sanchez is represented by Mato Sports Management.
The news is a shocking development given that Sanchez is entering just the second season of his four-year, $23.5MM extension with the Phillies. That deal had two affordable club options attached to the end of it, so the lefty was set to make just $47MM over the next five seasons. That makes this contract effectively $60MM in new money for the lefty’s age-34 and -35 seasons, with a club option for his age-36 campaign at a value that has not yet been reported.
It’s a nearly unprecedented move by the Phillies, whose initial extension with Sanchez had made him one of the most valuable assets in the entire sport. They’ve now traded the most, if not all of that surplus value to lock up the left-hander into his mid-thirties. Other teams have given established, franchise players extensions that take them well past their primes after already having those prime years locked up in the past, including the Guardians with Jose Ramirez back in January and the Diamondbacks with Ketel Marte last year. Those deals weren’t quite the same as this one, however. Both Ramirez and Marte had more than a decade of MLB experience under their belt and had already played out significant portions of their initial team-friendly extensions, even signing with the club multiple times. In addition, those teams had the motive of restructuring their star’s previous deal to include deferred money.
That’s not to say Sanchez is undeserving of his new payday, of course. After breaking out in 2024 and earning a trip to the All-Star game, Sanchez enjoyed one of the most impressive pitching seasons in recent memory this past season. The lefty spun a 2.50 ERA with a 2.55 FIP in 202 innings of work, striking out 212 batters across 32 starts. He paired his 26.3% strikeout rate with a 5.5% walk rate and a 58.3% ground ball rate, giving him a lower SIERA than every qualified starter in the NL and the third-lowest in baseball behind Tarik Skubal and Garrett Crochet.
By measure of fWAR, Sanchez’s 2025 season was a top-20 campaign by a qualified starter since 2015, tied with Cy Young-winning campaigns by future Hall of Famers like Chris Sale (2024), Max Scherzer (2017), and Justin Verlander (2019). Sanchez ultimately finished second behind Paul Skenes in Cy Young voting last year, but nonetheless established himself as among the upper-echelon of starters in today’s game with that performance. Clearly, the Phillies are betting on Sanchez to age well like those other elite arms did by signing him to a big-money extension for his mid-thirties. Philadelphia has been unafraid of signing players well past their prime years previously, as shown by the fact that Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola under contract through their age-37 seasons, while Jesus Luzardo‘s new contract extension includes a club option for his age-34 campaign.
With this new contract, Sanchez joins Luzardo (2032 club option) and Trea Turner (contract guaranteed through 2033) as the only three players under team control beyond the expiration of Bryce Harper‘s contract in 2031. This restructured contract for Sanchez could be an interesting data point for Harper and agent Scott Boras, as the two-time MVP and future Hall of Famer has previously publicly expressed a desire to extend or restructure his contract with Philadelphia to keep him in town beyond the 2031 campaign. Of course, those previous attempts were before this past offseason’s comments from Dave Dombrowski critical of Harper that drew the superstar’s ire, prompting trade speculation that Dombrowski later firmly shut down. Even if those tensions have been smoothed over at this point, it’s entirely possible that the Phillies would simply value adding a few more years to Sanchez’s contract more than doing the same with Harper, who will already be 38 years old in the final year of his current deal.
Wow great deal for Phillies
Yep HOF’er Dave does it again, congrats Phillies!
A contract is a contract. This sets a bad precedent.
Good deal.
Suck it, Mets
Very smart move. They have him and Lazardo to anchor the staff and if painter comes through it could be an awesome staff.
This is still a steal for the Phillies. Locking down some of those lefties!
5/$47M remaining was a steal. Turning that into 7/$107M makes no sense to me.
When top pitchers are getting a mil+ per start, this is a great team deal.
That’s a lot of potatoes!
Smartest thing DD has done this spring
The only decision they could have made that was wiser would be to finally bring back that delectable sriracha breakfast slop sandwich.
Well he didn’t sign Bregman, that was pretty smart too.
Sanchez and Luzardo are the core of the future rotation. Hopefully Painter pans out as well. Nicely done.
While many rightfully criticize this aging core, it’s nice to see the Phillies setting up for the future. This is the huge difference between now and 2012.
Wonder if the Phillies would trade him back to the Rays for Curtis Mead?
Curtis Mead isn’t even on the Rays
They already had him locked down. Seems unnecessary.
5 years $47m sounds better than 6 years $107m, but maybe that’s just me.
Guaranteeing him $60M now for two seasons in his mid-30s a half-decade from now is an odd decision. Maybe he continues to be great and they would have needed to pay more in five years to retain him, but pitchers break so often, I’m not sure I understand this decision.
Certainly happy for Sanchez getting paid closer to his actual value, just surprised.
Nice to see a team recognize he was ripped off by first extension and took care of him. Unlike the Braves.
Classy move by the Phillies. He deserves it.
It is refreshing to see the Phillies leadership recognize Sanchez for truly out playing his deal and do the right thing. Comparing Harpers deal and Sanchez is ridiculous. Harper gets paid like a superstar and doesnt need any additional appreciation. Whereas Sanchez was playing like a superstar but getting paid less than many middle relievers.