The Philadelphia Phillies and left-hander Cristopher Sánchez reached an agreement on Saturday for a $22.5 million, four-year contract that will cover 2025-28.
Sánchez will receive a $2 million signing bonus and wages of $1.5 million in 2025, $3 million in 2026, $6 million in 2027, and $9 million in 2028. Philadelphia has two options: $14 million for 2029 with a $1 million buyout and $15 million for 2030 with a $1 million buyout.
The options can climb to $16 million for 2029 and $19 million for 2030 based on top-ten results in Cy Young Award voting.
Sánchez, 27, inked a one-year contract for 2024 worth $753,500 in the majors and $280,432 in the minors.
“I’m so happy to be here,” Sanchez remarked through a translator. “I feel so great about this contract and what the future is going to be about.”
He would have been eligible for arbitration following the 2025 season. The options could cover his first two seasons after becoming eligible for free agency.
“We are always interested in bringing good players into your organization and keeping them, but we don’t usually negotiate during the season because it can be a distraction for the player,” Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said. “But when we discussed it, we were open to it, but it needed to happen quickly. … It was very quick; it was maybe a week of conversation, with the London trip in the middle.”
Sánchez was relegated to Triple-A Lehigh Valley on April 23 of last year and rejoined the Phillies rotation on June 17. In 14 starts this season, he is 4-3 with a 2.91 ERA and has allowed one home run in 77 1/3 innings.
“When I came up last year, I felt like this was it,” Sanchez said. “I plan to stay in the top leagues. And it was an excellent day for me.”
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Philadelphia’s long-term starters include right-hander Zack Wheeler, who signed a $126 million, three-year contract for 2025-27, and right-hander Aaron Nola, who is in the first year of a $172 million, seven-year contract.
Ranger Suárez, a left-handed pitcher who started the weekend tied for the major league lead with 10 victories, is eligible for arbitration next winter and may become a free agency following the 2025 season.
“We love Ranger, of course, and we hope that he is part of the organization for a long, long time,” Dombrowski told the crowd.