Anibal Sanchez 2019 Outlook: Veteran Arm Resurfacing After Several Rough Years
Anibal Sanchez seemingly found his old groove with the Atlanta Braves in 2018. A hamstring injury impeded his season early, but the right-hander finished with seven wins, a 2.83 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, and 135 strikeouts over 136.2 IP. A pretty impactful season for the veteran, these were by far his best numbers since 2013 so what changed? He threw a cut fastball more often jumping from 8.7% in 2017, he upped it to 22.5% of the time, and it worked as he limited batters to a .197 AVG against the pitch. Still possessing his devastating changeup, he produced soft contact (26.3%) almost as much as hard contact (27.7%), and his marks would have finished first and fourth respectively among qualifying major league arms. Now a member of the Washington Nationals, Sanchez will fill the back end of their rotation and should put up double-digit wins on a still above average team. Entering the 2019 season as a 35-year-old, maintaining a strikeout per inning pace will be difficult, and he’s also only eclipsed 155 IP once in the last five years, so an abundance of punch-outs likely won't materialize. The added cutter is a good sign moving forward, and Sanchez should see results in the high-threes for ERA and a WHIP in the range of 1.20-1.30. Going at an ADP of 280, it’s a fair price for the hurler as he’ll provide decent stats, but there’s not as much upside as some of the other arms going at that same cost.
After several disappointing seasons,

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