Phillies united behind Cristopher Sánchez in more ways than one: ‘We wouldn’t have missed that for the world’
PHILADELPHIA — Bryson Stott has had quite the view of the evolution of Cristopher Sánchez.
The two spent the summer of 2020 at Coca-Cola Park scrimmaging against other Phillies minor leaguers at the alternate site in Lehigh Valley. Stott and Sánchez were both in their first full seasons in the Phillies organization. Both were stuck in baseball purgatory for two months.
The left-handed-hitting Stott had many looks at Sánchez, then a raw prospect. His stuff now, according to Stott, is the same as it was five years ago, with one big difference.
“Back then, it was, if he needed a strike, you knew it was the sinker/four-seamer that he was throwing,” Stott said. “Now, you don’t really know what’s coming.”
The command of his secondaries — and the velocity jump on his sinker — is the reason why Sánchez is starting Game 1 of the National League Division Series in the absence of Zack Wheeler.
The bye week gave Sánchez some time to breathe. He invited many of his teammates and their families earlier in the week to a first birthday party in the backyard of his home in South Jersey for his son, Cristopher Jr., born days before Sánchez’s Game 2 start against the Mets in last year’s NLDS.
Sánchez’s fiancée Kaimary Perez went all out. The couple staged a photoshoot for Cris Jr. in a ball pit. Blue, green and cream colored balloons surrounded a staged area with cupcakes and party favors. The kids ate ice cream, played with a bunny, jumped in a bouncy house and sat in bean bag chairs.
Teammates in attendance included Stott, J.T. Realmuto, Bryce Harper, Aaron Nola, Nick Castellanos, Ranger Suárez, José Alvarado and more.
“Everyone hangs out,” Stott said. “All the kids love each other and they love being around each other, so we try to get them together as much as possible.”
The Phillies have rallied around Sánchez in more ways than one.
“I think that’s the most beautiful thing that we have as a team right now and as a club,” Sánchez said via a team interpreter. “We’re always together. We’re always united.”
Realmuto’s wife, Lexi, and Perez have become close friends.
“We wouldn’t have missed that for the world,” Realmuto said. “That’s just kind of how this team is. We enjoy hanging out. We like to go to each other’s houses on the off days, enjoy each other’s company. I think that’s one thing that makes us successful, is that we enjoy each other on and off the field.
“In this game, you spend so much time together, it’s really important to like your teammates and actually get along with them. I think that’s something special that we have here.”
Much has been said about Sánchez’s evolution from depth starter with fleeting command to one of the best left-handed pitchers in MLB. The changeup is no longer a secret weapon. He generated 269 swing-and-misses on the pitch in 2025. Only one other pitch, Dylan Cease’s slider, missed more bats this year. Hitters can no longer sit on the sinker in advantageous counts, as Stott said. Sánchez also mixes in the slider to both right-handed and left-handed batters.
He also has the ace mentality, according to his catcher Realmuto.
“He has like an aura of confidence about him,” Realmuto said. “He goes into the (pregame) meeting not necessarily worrying about what the opposing team does well. He just talks about himself and how he wants to attack and what works for him. And that’s something I think is really cool to see the last few years him grow in that way. He’s just has so much confidence in what he does that he’s not too worried about the opposing team.”
The Phillies believe that Sánchez is ready for the spotlight. He was in the clubhouse as a member of the taxi squad during the 2022 run to the World Series, made his first postseason start in the NLCS in 2023 and was named Game 2 starter in 2024. If Sánchez shoves and the Phillies do just enough against Shohei Ohtani in innings one through six, Philadelphia has a good chance at taking a 1-0 lead over the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Judging by the crowd that showed up for Cris Jr.’s special day, there is a lot of love to go around for the Sánchez family.
“The most special thing and the thing that I love the most about this team and the people that we have around us is how much support and how much we are together at every single point,” Sánchez said. “It doesn’t matter who it is, everyone’s there. It doesn’t matter if it’s me or if it’s anyone else. We’re always together. It doesn’t matter who needs it.”