Sixto Sanchez (Marlins)

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Name: Sixto Sanchez
Born: 7/29/1998
Position: P
Height: 5’10”
Weight: 160lbs
Bats/Throws: R/R
Options Remaining: 3
Rule 5 Eligible: 2019
MiLB Free Agency: 2021
Drafted: International FA 2015
From: San Cristobal, D.R.
Signed: 3/30/2015
Bonus: $35,000

Stats: MiLB | B-Ref | Fangraphs | Baseball America | Baseball Prospectus

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2019 Preseason (#1)

Role: #1 Starter
Risk: High – Sanchez has arguably the best raw stuff of any pitcher in the minor leagues. He also has an athletic delivery and plus control. He does not have a long injury history, but the mystery around his summer injury and fall soreness creates a lot of uncertainty about his future health.
Summary: The midseason injury and fall setback clouded what was trending as another positive season for Sanchez. After a slow start, Sanchez was on a roll over his last 4 starts, putting up a 25.2 IP 0.70 ERA 15 H 4 BB 29 K line. He showed the stuff we have come to expect from Sanchez. His electric fastball sat in the high 90s, topping out at 102. Sanchez shows a plus changeup, and his slider has improved to plus as well. Sanchez has plus control, and he shows future plus command of all of his pitches. His combination of pitches is arguably the best in the minors. Sanchez’s health is the biggest question facing his future. His injury over the summer should be fully healed, but it took longer than expected. His velocity had fully returned before he experienced collar bone soreness in Fall Instructs, and that injury sounded mostly precautionary. The Phillies say Sanchez will be at full strength in Spring Training, and if they are right he will be in a position to contribute very soon. Until he shows health over a full season of starts, many will question whether he has the durability to be major league starter.
2019 Outlook: A fully healthy Sanchez should start the year in Reading. If he performs at a top level, he could be major league ready before the end of the summer. The Phillies, however, are likely to baby him and keep his innings limited, making any late season major league time unlikely.

2018 Midseason (#1)

After getting off to a slow start due to illness, Sanchez was dominant for the Threshers. He has been sidelined with elbow inflammation since late June, with an expected return in mid to late August. When healthy, Sanchez once again showed a high 90s fastball that touched up to 102. His secondary pitches still need polishing, but he shows 3 future plus pitches in his slider, curveball, and changeup. He can throw all of his pitches for strikes, and while he rarely puts up huge strikeout numbers he is very efficient on the mound and generates plenty of weak contact. As long as there are no lasting effects from the injury, Sanchez profiles as an ace starting pitch and is one of the best pitching prospects in the minor leagues.

2018 Preseason (#2)

Role: #1/#2 Starter
Risk: High – Sixto Sanchez’s combination of velocity and control is near unheard of from a 19 year old. Add in that he will show you at least 2 plus secondary pitches, and you have a roadmap to one of the best starters in baseball. However, major league ace level starting pitching is far way from 95 innings of A ball, and there is a lot in the way still for Sanchez.
Summary: Scouting reports on Sixto Sanchez this year were like Bigfoot sightings, some of them whispered like some giant secret, others exclaimed out in disbelief. The first thing you see is the fastball. By the end of the 2017 season, Sanchez was comfortably sitting 95 to 99, and hitting 100 in most starts, topping out at 102. He can manipulate the pitch some, giving it some cut or run down at the bottom of the range, or just airing it out with explosive life. Sanchez doesn’t have pinpoint command yet, but he can already throw the pitch for strikes consistently. The offspeed stuff is where things get weird. He has shown two changeups, one more of a splitter, and the other more of a conventional circle changeup that sits in the hi-80s, touching 90. He throws a two breaking balls, a power curveball in the 78-82 range and a slider in the mid 80s. Both will show future plus potential, but also they can get inconsistent and blend together into some sort of slurve. He likely ends up with only one changeup, but there is no reason he can’t develop both breaking balls. Given his feel for all of his secondaries at his age, it does not take a lot of projection to see him with 2-3 plus offspeed pitches. Sanchez shows advanced feel for pitching for a teenager, but he ran into problems in Clearwater with just trying to blow fastballs in the zone past guys. Outside of the raw stuff, Sanchez is a great athlete and fields his position like the former shortstop that he is. His athleticism allows him to repeat his delivery and throw at such high velocity with ease. Most of the concerns around Sanchez are structural. The first is that he is listed at 6’0”, and despite the fact that he is built solidly, there are questions about his durability, to go with the normal height based concerns about plane on his pitches. The other problem is that the Phillies very much limited his innings in 2017. He didn’t record more than 18 outs in a start, and he topped out at 85 pitches. Most of this is related to him only being 18 years old for most of the season, but it left a lot questions for evaluators about his ability to handle a full starter’s workload. He certainly has risk, but Sanchez has shown that he is a special arm, not just in the Phillies’ system, but in baseball.
2018 Outlook: Sixto Sanchez will return to Clearwater to open the season, and if he continues on his current path, he should finish the year in Reading. He pitched about 100 innings in 2017 including his rehab, so he should pitch 120-130 innings next year.

2017 Midseason (#1)

There has been nothing more exciting for the Phillies than Sixto Sanchez’s starts. The short right hander has established himself as one of the best pitching prospects in the minor leagues. He starts with an electric fastball that sits 94-99 with movement that he has run up to 102 this season. He can pound the strike zone with it and shows the foundation for future plus command of it. He has shown a couple different changeups this year, a harder one up to 93 and another with more run and sink in the high 80s. He has both a slider and a curveball, but they can blend into a slurve at times. He can use either to miss bats, but they can also get long and loopy, and he can struggle with his consistency. There is enough feel in this plethora of offspeed pitches to pare things down and emerge with at least a pair of plus offerings. Sanchez is athletic on the mound, and while there is some effort in his delivery, his mechanics are clean and easy. He just turned 19 years old, so there is plenty of time for him to refine his arsenal. The biggest knock on Sanchez is that he has yet to pitch a full season of innings, and outside of a playoff start in 2016, he has not pitched more than 6 innings in an outing. Sanchez has ace level stuff, and if he can survive the trip through the minors, he has a chance to be one of the best pitchers in baseball.

2017 Preseason (#6)

Role: #2 Starter
Risk: Extreme – Sanchez is very young, and his track is limited. He has shown the raw stuff and polish to be a high end starting pitcher, but a lot can go wrong between the GCL and the majors.
Summary: No prospect raised their profile more this year than Sanchez. He started the year completely off of prospect radars, and he was not one of the players brought stateside for spring training. Even though he was the opening day starter for the GCL Phillies, he was throwing 91-95, and was more of an intriguing prospect, than a breakout one. Between that first start and the end of the year, Sanchez evolved from a 17 year old throwing low 90s to an 18 year old routinely touching 98 to 99. It is not just velocity for Sanchez, who sports a curveball and changeup that both flash plus potential. He also flashed a low 90s slider in his last few appearances of the regular season. In addition to his pitches in isolation, Sanchez has shown the ability to locate his pitches at a rate beyond his years. Sanchez dominated the Gulf Coast League by keeping hitters off balance and generating a large quantity of weak contact. The weak contact, coupled with a stingy walk rate and solid strikeout rate, allowed Sanchez to pitch deep into games without racking up high pitch counts. There are few young starters who can match Sanchez’s raw stuff, but he does have some detractions. The most obvious is his height, Sanchez is listed at 6’0”, and that might be slightly generous. His solid build and plus stuff should answer most questions about his ability to stick as a starter, but the questions will remain until he has success at upper levels. Additionally, he is only 18 and an absolute eternity from the majors. Sanchez’s stuff and feel give him the ceiling of a front line starting pitcher, but he is far away from that.

2017 Outlook: Sanchez is polished enough to make the jump to full season ball at age 18. The only question is how many innings the Phillies let him pitch at Lakewood, as they could look to limit his workload.

2016 Midseason

There has been no Phillies pitcher who has generated the buzz in the last month than Sanchez has in his first taste of stateside action. Sanchez just turned 18 this week and is relatively small (listed at 5’10” and maybe is 5’11”) for a big time pitching prospect. However, this GCL season Sanchez has moved quickly from a guy sitting 91-95 to a guy sitting 93-96 and touching up to 97-99 is some his starts. So far he has shown that he can throw the pitch for strikes and has generated large quantities of weak contact. His offspeed pitches show potential, but need work, which is not out of the ordinary for a pitcher as young as him. Sanchez is a guy who will be right on the cusp of the Phillies’ top prospects due to the combination of age and velocity, but there are still some things he needs to work through to get past the concerns about his size and establish himself as one of the top pitching prospects in the system.

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