Cristopher Sánchez's tremendous season ends with second-place NL Cy Young finish

For the second season in a row, a Phillies ace finished runner-up in NL Cy Young Award voting.

After Zack Wheeler finished second in NL Cy Young Award voting to Chris Sale a season ago, Cristopher Sánchez finished runner-up to Paul Skenes of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 2025 voting, which was revealed Wednesday.

Paul Skenes wins the 2025 NL Cy Young Award UNANIMOUSLY!

He is the first NL pitcher to do so since Sandy Alcantara in 2022. pic.twitter.com/VF9QgsfCmA

— MLB (@MLB) November 13, 2025

The results weren't surprising, as Skenes — last year's NL Rookie of the Year — led senior circuit starters in ERA (1.97), ERA+ (217), FIP (2.36), WHIP (0.948), HR/9 (0.5) and FanGraphs' calculation of WAR (6.5). 

Nonetheless, it was a tremendous season for Sánchez, who edged out eventual World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto to finish runner-up to Skenes. Sánchez logged 202 innings, with Logan Webb and Garrett Crochet the only other pitchers to top 200 this season. That same trio finished in a tie for the MLB lead with 22 quality starts. Sánchez also led all starters in Baseball Reference's calculation of WAR (8.0), while also posting a 2.50 ERA, 2.55 FIP and 212 strikeouts. 

This marks the second consecutive top-10 finish in NL Cy Young Award voting for Sánchez, who finished 10th after a breakout season in 2024. 

Sánchez's second-place finish marks the third time in the last five seasons that a Phillies starter has finished runner-up in NL Cy Young Award voting, with the aforementioned Wheeler doing it both in 2021 and 2024. Aaron Nola finished third in a great race in 2018, behind Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer. 

Hall of Famer Roy Halladay remains the last Phillie to win the NL Cy Young Award, doing so in 2010. There's a strong argument to be made that Halladay should have repeated in 2011, though he and teammate Cliff Lee lost out to Clayton Kershaw that season. 

In any event, Sánchez, who will turn 29 in December, still represents the best hope to be the next Phillie to win the Cy Young Award. 

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