Cristopher Sanchez took a hit in Kansas City, but it still hasn’t knocked him off the top of the Phillies’ first-half mountain.
Philadelphia’s season has already gone through a full swing, from 9-19 to 51-41 and sitting just 2.0 games back in the NL East. The team has gotten big seasons from Bryce Harper, Brandon Marsh, Kyle Schwarber and Zack Wheeler, but Sanchez has been the one player whose value has separated from the pack.
Bradford Doolittle of ESPN labeled Sanchez the Phillies’ first-half MVP, and he did it while factoring in the left-hander’s rough outing against the Royals. As Doolittle put it: "First-half MVP: Cristopher Sanchez (139 AXE)," Doolittle writes. "This updated AXE includes Sanchez's head-scratching shellacking Monday at Kansas City, an egg-laying that bolstered Jacob Misiorowski's front-runner status in the Cy Young conversation."
That start was brutal. Sanchez gave up nine runs on 12 hits, walked one, allowed three homers and struck out one. Even with that on the ledger, the case for him remains strong because the full body of work is still so loud.
Sanchez leads all pitchers in baseball with 5.0 bWAR. He has a 2.62 ERA across 19 starts, a 10-4 record, 137 strikeouts and a 173 ERA+ in 120.1 innings.
The other top Phillies names have been excellent, but not at Sanchez’s level in overall value. Schwarber has 2.5 bWAR, Harper sits at 2.2 and Marsh at 1.8. Wheeler has posted 4.3 bWAR, while Jesus Luzardo is at 2.4 and Jhoan Duran at 2.2.
Sanchez’s scoreless May and his record-setting scoreless streak give him enough breathing room to survive the Royals disaster and keep the Phillies’ MVP conversation in his favor. He’ll need to steady things if he wants to stay in the Cy Young hunt, but for now, the first-half crown still belongs to him.
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