Cristopher Sanchez might prove the obvious answer wrong.
You’d think that a player can only have a breakout season once, yet Cristopher Sanchez is starting to look like he’s primed to follow up last year’s breakout season with yet another.
So far in spring training, his fastball has hit 98 mph six times — significantly higher than his 94.5 mph average last season. That’s also increased from 92.1 mph in 2023. This increase has turned his changeup into one of the best in baseball and improved an already-deadly sinker, which is now sitting around 97 mph.
In 2024, his age-27 season, he went 11-9 in 31 starts with a 3.32 ERA, 122 ERA+, 1.24 WHIP, 20.3 K%, two complete games, and one shutout. He threw a career-high 181.2 innings and amassed a 4.7 fWAR. He made his first career All-Star appearance and finished tenth in Cy Young Award voting.
Jeff Passan recently wrote an article about the 10 players MLB scouts, GMs, and analysts are buzzing about in spring training($) and Sanchez made the cut… for the second time. Here is what he had to say:
So, today’s question is multi-faceted… Will Cristopher Sanchez have a breakout season two years in a row? Would it even be a breakout season, considering his performance last year? What exactly are the expectations for Sanchez going into 2025? With an already strong rotation, an improved Sanchez feels almost like it would be an embarrassment of riches.