Sánchez's 3-Pitch Dominance

0:00It's April 18th. You're listening to MLB News today, AI-powered baseball coverage. I'm Cory with the story. Christopher Sanchez stands out as one of the top starting pitchers in baseball. Maybe even the best right now, and he does not throw a single four-seam, fastball. This Philly's ace relies solely on a sinker, change up, and slider. Those three pitches make up every single throw he has made this season and last. That simple mix has him leading or right behind and wins above replacement since the start of the 2025 season, depending on the stat side. You check. What makes this rare is how most starters mix in four-seamers or pack five or six pitches these days. Sanchez joins just a few others with a three-pitch arsenal, but he is the only one ditching the straight fastball for a pure sinker. His sinker tops the majors in run value since last year, preventing 20 runs, while his change of rank second at 22 runs prevented, behind. Only Tariq Scubao.

1:01Fans and analysts are buzzing because Sanchez keeps dominating without the bells and whistles other, Sai Young hopefuls, like Paul Schienz or Yoshinobu. Yamamoto used who throw way more varieties. He finished as the National League Sai Young runner-up last year, and now he is a top contender again, proving a tight arsenal works when the movement is elite. Big deeper, and his pitches move more than comparable ones from other hurlers, extra sink and run on the fastball, massive drop on the change up, and A, sharper slider thanks to a grip tweak this year. That sinker change up duo forms the most valuable two-pitch combo in baseball, with hundreds of strikeouts between them. Catch Sanchez in action, Saturday night at 715 Eastern on Fox, facing Chris Sale and the Braves in a huge divisional clash. With that filthy trio, he is locked in as a true ace, ready to own the league.