Phillies' Cristopher Sanchez has reached a new level despite shaky start to 2026

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TL;DR

Cristopher Sanchez of the Philadelphia Phillies has excelled this season with a 2.01 ERA and leads the NL with a 1.3 bWAR, despite a rocky start. His performance has been crucial in the absence of ace Zack Wheeler.

Phillies' Cristopher Sanchez has reached a new level despite shaky start to 2026 originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

The Philadelphia Phillies are without their staff ace in Zack Wheeler, but the dominance from Cristopher Sanchez this season has more than made up for his absence.

Sanchez has been a bit shaky this season, which makes his 2.01 ERA and NL-leading 1.3 bWAR all the more impressive. He's not pitching at his best, and he's still dominating.

As Zachary D. Rymer of Bleacher Report writes, the Phillies lefty ace has "another level," and he's been able to reach such a state even amid some shaky outings this year.

Cristopher Sanchez has 'reached another level' despite shaky start

"He's posting a 2.01 ERA through four starts, with a much higher strikeout rate (32.6 percent) than he had last year," Rymer writes. "He's somehow turned his changeup into even more of a weapon than it was before."

Sanchez is pitching as well as he ever has in his career from an ERA standpoint, but there's still a lot of meat left on the bone for Sanchez.

He's allowing hitters to have a .701 OPS against him, which would be the highest mark of his career since 2022. Sanchez can drop that figure and get even better than he is now.

But the strikeout percentage is something that's been very encouraging so far this season. He's striking out 32.6 percent of the batters he's facing through four starts, up from the 26.3 percent mark from last season, which was a career-high.

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Even though Sanchez is struggling to limit baserunners this season, he's managed to limit the damage when it comes to runs being scored. And with a 1.90 FIP, he could be having an even better season.

Sanchez has become such a dominant pitcher in the Major Leagues that his shaky start to the year is still putting him at a 214 ERA+ with some incredible numbers.

The Phillies lefty ace has been incredible this season, and that's despite not pitching his best. Sanchez is one of the best pitchers in baseball, and his dominance despite a shaky start is proof of that.