Phillies' Cristopher Sanchez gets Opening Day nod vs. Rangers

The Philadelphia Phillies showed their faith in Cristopher Sanchez last weekend by signing the left-hander to a six-year, $107 million contract extension.

While that deal officially begins in 2027, Sanchez will likely have a bounce in his step on Thursday afternoon when he takes the mound as the Phillies open the season against the visiting Texas Rangers.

Sanchez, 29, is coming off the best season of his career, posting a 13-5 record with a 2.50 ERA in 32 games (all starts) in 2025. He finished second in last season's National League Cy Young Award voting to Pittsburgh Pirates star Paul Skenes.

"I'm absolutely so proud of being here, and it shows the commitment that this thing happened," Sanchez said via an interpreter. "They rewarded my work and the way I've been doing the last few years of my work, and it's just a great commitment. I appreciate the team doing this for me."

The Phillies are betting the appreciation will go both ways in regard to Sanchez, who won his lone career encounter versus the Rangers last season. He yielded one run on six hits with six strikeouts in six innings of a 9-1 rout.

Kyle Schwarber, Trea Turner and Brandon Marsh each hit a homer in that game for the Phillies, who were ninth best in the major leagues last season with 212 home runs, en route to winning the NL East for the second straight year.

Schwarber was responsible for a career-best 56 homers, with Bryce Harper second on the team with 27.

As for Harper, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski had plenty to say on the two-time NL MVP and eight-time All-Star earlier this spring. In short, Dombrowski openly suggested that Harper may no longer be an elite player.

Harper didn't take kindly to those comments but insisted that he doesn't "get motivated by that kind of stuff."

The Phillies will boast two new faces in the lineup, namely rookie center fielder Justin Crawford and veteran right fielder Adolis Garcia. The latter was allowed to walk away from the Rangers after a two-season slide following his 2023 form that led Texas to a World Series title.

Garcia will see a familiar face when Rangers right-hander Nathan Eovaldi takes the mound on Thursday for his third straight Opening Day start.

Eovaldi, 36, posted an 11-3 record with a 1.73 ERA in 22 starts last season before being shut down in August with a strained rotator cuff. He underwent surgery in October to repair a sports hernia and is a full-go this season.

A two-time All-Star and two-time World Series champion, Eovaldi is 5-4 with a 3.51 ERA in 12 career appearances (all starts) versus Philadelphia.

"True culture is when your best player is your hardest worker and continues to hold the standard," new Texas manager Skip Schumaker said of Eovaldi. "There's no better guy to continue to showcase that. When people say the standard is the standard, not many people can identify or tell you what exactly the standard is. Well, that's the standard."

While Eovaldi excelled last season, Texas was mediocre with an 81-81 record and a third-place finish in the American League West.

Manager Bruce Bochy parted ways with the Rangers, who quickly locked up Schumaker on a four-year deal. The move hardly was surprising given Schumaker joined the club's front office as a senior advisor to president of baseball operations Chris Young in November 2024.

In addition to Garcia, Texas also moved on from Marcus Semien by shipping him to the New York Mets in a deal for Brandon Nimmo.

Shortstop Corey Seager's health will go a long way in determining what type of season is expected in Texas. The five-time All-Star has missed 142 games over the past three seasons due to various injuries.