It was surprising to learn Sunday morning that the Phillies had reached a new contract with ace Cristopher Sánchez, but the more we've learned about the deal, it's become clear what the motivations for the team were.
Framings like this, with all due respect, miss the mark:
The way the #Phillies reworked the contract of Cristopher Sánchez sets a horrible precedent for teams. Great for Sanchez, generous of the Phillies, but now a player that has far outperformed his agreed upon contract might ask his club to do the same. SXM 89 top of the hour.
Perhaps the announcement of a six-year deal is what led to confusion here. But as The Athletic's Matt Gelb wrote, "it's not as if this was a magnanimous gesture" by the Phillies.
In reality, Sánchez is still going to be drastically underpaid relative to the type of pitcher he is over the course of this contract. He did not get a raise on the salaries of $3 million in 2026, $6 million in 2027 or $9 million in 2028. The Phillies did agree to pick up Sánchez's $14 million club option in 2029 and $15 million in 2030, which does come with some risk considering the possibility of pitchers getting hurt. If Sánchez were to have a major injury in the interim, the Phillies could come to regret guaranteeing those options sooner than they had to by the terms of the comically team-friendly four-year/$22.5 million extension the lefty agreed to in June of 2024. But, if healthy, those numbers are going to be bargains, even if Sánchez were to regress into being just a middle-of-the-rotation arm.
And on the back end of things, Sánchez is now signed for two more seasons, set to make $30 million in 2031 and 2032. That's good money, certainly relative to what Sánchez has made so far in his career. But even if Sánchez were to make $30 million in 2026, seven pitchers in the sport this year have a higher average annual value — Zack Wheeler ($42 million), Framber Valdez ($38.3 million), Jacob deGrom ($37 million), Blake Snell ($36.4 million), Gerrit Cole ($30 million), Corbin Burnes ($35 million), Tarik Skubal ($32 million). Sánchez's contract will be worth $30 million in 2031 and 2032 — with a lower AAV, because he's only going to get that for the final two seasons of the deal — which will be highway robbery for a frontline pitcher, assuming Sánchez still is that in his age-34 and 35 seasons.
Additionally, the deal has a club option for 2033, which Phillies Nation's Ty Daubert says has a base value of $32.5 million. Scott Lauber of The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that the club option for Sánchez's age-36 season can max out at $44.5 million, and includes a $1 million buyout.
What this is effectively is a two-year/$61 million extension, with president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski acknowledging to the media present in Clearwater Sunday that the Phillies "couldn't even imagine" not exercising the old club options for Sánchez in 2029 and 2030.
The Phillies did infamously get burned giving Ryan Howard a five-year/$125 million extension in April of 2010, despite the fact that he couldn't become a free agent until after the 2011 season. If the Phillies had played out the three-year/$54 million deal Howard signed in February of 2009, they obviously wouldn't have given Howard the additional five-year deal considering he tore his left achilles on the final play of Game 5 of the 2011 NLDS. Howard was never the same after that. Sometimes, it's smart not to make a move until you have to.
Then again, if Sánchez, 29, had played out his prior deal and become a free agent after the 2030 season, he would have been looking at a significantly higher price (and perhaps longer term) if he is still pitching at an All-Star level. We don't know exactly what the luxury tax situation will be at that time, even if we assume there won't be a salary cap. But the market value for Sánchez in 2031 and 2032 could very well be over $50 million per season. The Phillies now have him signed for $30 million per season. They possess the chance to retain him for another season at a base value of $32.5 million. There was some risk in getting out in front of things this early for the Phillies, but this still projects to be a team-friendly contract — both in the short and long term.
