Right-hander Aníbal Sánchez was a free agent last year after the Nationals declined his option for the 2021 season. He held multiple showcases for interested clubs, even into late April. However, he never found a deal to his liking and ended up deciding to sit out the season. But that doesn’t mean he’s retired, as Alex Speier of the Boston Globe reports that Sanchez is considering a return in 2022.
A return to form for Sánchez would be quite a feat for the hurler who turns 38 in February, though he’s been counted out before. Signed by the Tigers to a five-year deal prior to the 2013 campaign, Sánchez was excellent in the first year of the deal, throwing 182 innings with an ERA of 2.57. However, his ERA continued to grow in each year of the contract, with marks of 3.43, 4.99, 5.87 and 6.41 over 2014-2017.
After that drop in effectiveness, he had to settle for a minor league deal with Atlanta prior to the 2018 season. That proved to be a tremendous bounceback campaign for Sánchez, who was 34 years old at the time. He ended up throwing 136 2/3 innings for Atlanta with an ERA of 2.83, and parlayed that into a two-year, $19MM deal with the Nationals. He had another good year in 2019, throwing 166 innings with an ERA of 3.85, as well as 18 postseason innings with an ERA of 2.50, helping the Nats win the World Series that year.
Unfortunately for Sánchez, 2020 was a step back, as his ERA shot up to 6.62 over 53 innings in the shortened season. But after not pitching in 2021, Speier reports that Sánchez “felt rejuvenated after the time off, throwing with what appears to be more velocity than in recent years.” The next step for Sanchez is to “throw in front of a scout with a radar gun to decide whether to attempt another shot at the big leagues.”
Despite the downtime and the poor season in 2020, Sánchez could garner interest around the league due to the nature of the starting pitching market. There are a couple of top-tier free agents remaining in Carlos Rodon and Clayton Kershaw, but a big drop-off after that, as recently explored by MLBTR’s Anthony Franco. With many teams still looking to add starting pitching for 2022, it’s certainly possible that one of them is willing to roll the dice on a veteran with such a long track record of success in the majors. Sánchez has thrown 1,948 1/3 innings over 15 seasons so far, with an ERA of 4.05, strikeout rate of 20.8% and walk rate of 7.9%.
I think there a ton of these types out there, with a ‘heck I can still lift my arm, someone will roll the dice for $3-4M guaranteed’ mentality.
Sure, as long as owners and their team braintrust continue to try and catch “lightning in a bottle” and throw ridiculous money at these types of over the hill “done” players, guys like this will continue to roll off the couch and try to touch em up for one last payday!
Its the fans who pay the price, with family tickets the price of mortgages, $20 dollar hotdogs, $20 dollar 12 oz beers, and $10 dollar pretzels…..all do see a lousy exhibition of what used to be skill on the part of these washed up guys….not to even touch surprising a young guy in the minors who doesn’t get the chance because of guys like Sanchez!
Anibal Sanchez is not the reason we pay $20 for hot dogs. You guys have no idea how businesses determine prices. Hint: it’s not based on costs
The only $20 hot dogs are 16-inch dogs that no one needs to be eating. And if you are, please don’t blame an over-the-hill pitcher that wants to squeeze the last moments of his career for consuming that frankfurter and making that poor decision. Own the thousands of calories, along with the mistake.
Ah, Ive owned my own business for 20 years…..I totally understand the economics of business and increased sunk and variable costs…..and costs do matter….player payroll is on the balance sheet and included in the overall cost sheets of every stadium an owner has a piece of….
The last moments of his career happened several years ago at this point….
This should not be the morale police. The point raised was simply baseball in person has become a rich person’s sport like most others when it used to be fan friendly. The cost of box seats in the late 70s was not much different than a movie ticket. just one example
That’s because if you priced things cheaply to go to a baseball game, the demand would far outstrip the supply of tickets. Owners would be selling $10 tickets and selling out every game with massive waiting lists for the season tickets instead of $35 tickets and selling 80% of the tickets. But I suspect that you realize this as well. As for the movie tickets, the key point there is that they were able to build more movie theaters but not too many more seats at baseball games..
Baseball wants everything They complain about not keeping the attention span of the younger generation but price seats so families can no longer go together. Do I really think I’d be as much a fan if I wasn’t able to go in person as a youth and teen? I’ve said it before. MLB is now married to gambling. There better be new ways to watch because most families simply cannot afford to go to a game. Two family outings a year or a new TV to watch all year round? Each year the alternative changes but the money is real.
Sorry Rocky your small business isn’t similar to the teams of people that MLB franchises use to determine ticket prices. The cost of tickets are determined by what the market will pay
Just retire other young guys need a chance in the big,enjoy your family,he make enough money already.
Even in the 2000’s they used to sell some nose bleed seats for a dollar. The price slowly went up to about 6 dollars. After a few years at 6 bucks it seems they just did away with them altogether. That’s a shame. I get that most of the seats are going to be expensive but I think every stadium should have at least one section of cheap seats. The elimination of cheap seats has made it really hard for families to go as a group. It’s one thing for a group of friends to go and each pay their own way but it’s tough for families to do it together when the dad has to fork over more than $300 just to get them in the door plus another $100 to feed them plus another $100 in beer just so he can forget how bad his credit card debt is going to be long enough to enjoy the game.
I still enjoy paying my own way and going with my friends after saving up a little. I’ve always wanted to take my family to a game though like I was taken when I was a kid. I just flat out can’t afford it. 50 bucks used to get 5 of us in and feed us. Now it’s about $500 for all that. I’m not that old. Inflation hasn’t increased 1,000% since I was born. It’s a shame because it makes it really hard to get my young kids to even like baseball when I can’t even take them to the game. As far as they know it’s just a tv show. Baseball is going to have a difficult time growing as a sport this way in my opinion. The younger kids are the less they care baseball. I’m guessing it’s because they don’t go to games. When I was their age everyone went to games all the time. It was THE thing to do. I hardly know anyone that takes their kids anymore maybe one or two families but they only have one kid and they still only go once every several years. When I was their age it wasn’t uncommon to know several families that went 15-20 times a year. Even that was down from my dad’s generation when some families would catch almost every home game.
I think the owners (and players alike) are choosing money over expanding the game to a larger audience right now. That only works for so long. That money will eventually be gone and at this pace the fan bases will be so small nowhere near enough fans will be there to support the sport. I think they are making a mistake by choosing the money over everything. The goal shouldn’t always be to make as much money as possible off every seat sold. The main goal should be to have as many fans as possible wanting to go but miss them not because they can’t afford it but because the games are sold out. The fans who miss games are very valuable to the future of the sport. Their kids and grandkids are going to want to go to games, too. Baseball has just let that entire fanbase disappear by jacking up the prices so high they don’t even dream of going to a game. After that their kids and grandkids don’t even care about baseball.
For the game viewership and attendance to stay healthy as long as possible it needs to be a situation where everyone feels like they can afford to go to any given game. The more people who can afford it the more people will pay attention to the sport. Right now it seems like the same very affluent people are able to go to as many games as they want but it’s always the same general group. If one guy goes to 2 games and spends a lot of money that’s still just one fan. If 2 guys go to one game each they might not spend as much but now you’ve made 2 fans instead of one. The future of the sport is going to be better if if baseball tries to make as many people fans as possible.
I loved Sanchez. I drafted him three seperate seasons over time and he always came thru. He was a good pitcher.
Don’t disagree but all that is years ago and he’s not the same by any stretch of metrics or analytics you might view., other than he can walk, talk, and raise his arm.
Rocky, the only question is can he out perform for the money he might cost some young person who might have the arm but not the head? I thought Boston spending so much on Richards Las season. was stupid (and still do) yet once he moved to the pen, he provides quality innings and the team might not have made the playoffs without him.
Think it’s more like some want to see if can make a few more dollars and some know it’s time to retire and just do. Sanchez for example probably wants to see if can get a few guaranteed dollars.
Orioles should consider Sanchez and as well as bringing back the Dark Knight, but out him in the bullpen
If Sanchez is willing to take a minor league deal with an opt out that converts to a major league deal worth $2M if he makes the team, I’m all for it. No interest in Harvey out of the pen, he’s probably not interested in that role right now and the O’s have younger options with more upside.
I bet the Pirates would consider him for the rotation.
Yeah, this is the kind of guy they look for, for better or worse. Given the revolving door of guys they trotted out last year—most of whom couldn’t make it out of the 4th—why not, until the kids in the minors get here?
If you can’t find a deal to your liking after a showcase, sit out a year because those deals will be there after another year of inactivity? Okay.
And still BIG SEXY awaits a phone call….
Actually, it seems like he put up some pretty good numbers in Monclova. He would be legit.
We need a Soto v bartolo AB
“We live our house, but there’s an Anibal in the attic.”
“YEAH YEAH YEAH…. DRUMS! DRIMS!”
Pirates ace this year
Pirates ace this year .
Nothing will remind a player how much he enjoys playing the game than spending a year home with the family.
That comment gave me the first real chuckle I’ve in a while.
A soon to be 38 year old Pitcher who didn’t pitch last season and was awful the year before that. On a minor league contract why not? But if he’s looking for actual guaranteed money i don’t think he gets it.
However, with that said, he may want to try the Dodgers. They paid a million dollars for Cole Hamels autograph last year so you never know…
MLBTR seems to be getting more and more desperate for “content”.
Then you go fix the lockout no brain
Just like MLB
Sanchez looks like a good candidate for the Cubs. Exactly what the Cubs are looking for. They need pitching, and they could sign him for 1 year, small amount of money. Just what the Cubs are looking to do.
He is worth a gamble. At a time when teams are realizing that they need like 7 or 8 starters to make it through a season to be reasonable contenders, Sanchez might be able to give a team a dozen twenty decent starts. That might mean a couple games in the standings over whatever AA pitcher you would have otherwise had to toss out there, Obviously there is risk there, but that’s why you get a number of guys with risk attached to them, because some will work out and others won’t.
He’s done.
I’m a Braves fan and remember complaining bitterly when he’d washed out with the Tigers and we were wasting scarce resources by spending even a dollar on him. Then he gave us 24 starts of 2.83 ball. Pretty sure he’s done now, though. Unless he’s not.
This has the Angels written all over it. Sanchez is talking to Lincecum for advice right now.
Dodgers will sign him……..
Great, he can replace Jon Lester on my annual “All Older than Me Team.” May 4, 1984. Pitching isn’t a problem, but position players are.
Most people here ‘think’ that the main motivating factor for him to play is money. Imagine if he loves the game and just wants to play at the highest level he can, just imagine…
Jamie Moyer
Julio Franco
Bart Colon
Willie Mays
Phil Niekro
Dave Winfield
Rich Hill
Nelson Cruz
Jesse Chavez
Joey Votto……
This sounds like a perfect candidate for Chaim Bloom to sign on a 1 year low cost deal
Bloom already signed Michael Wacha, Rich Hill, and James Paxton. They have enough question marks.
The Giants might be a good fit. They could use a starter to fill out the backend of their rotation and the coaches there worked wonders on Gausman, DeSclafani, and Wood.
I was being facetious. But these are the ONLY type signings Mr Henry will let Mr Bloom do.
I’m certain if Sanchez signs somewhere he’ll have an ERA between 2.00 and 8.00.