Last week both Preston Mattingly and Rob Thomson put to rest rumors that the Phillies were blocking Cristopher Sanchez from pitching in the WBC for the Dominican Republic. It was actually Sanchez who was not sure if he wanted to pitch. Now, the runner-up to the Cy Young Award has decided that he will represent the D.R. in the upcoming games, which begin in early March.

Mattingly told Philly Baseball News:  “To me it’s a great event, it’s a great tournament and we have been very supportive of our players going. It’s a great event for fans and players.”

Thomson, while concerned about injuries to players, is also supportive of players taking part in the WBC and said that is an organization-wide philosophy. “…as an organization, we’d never stop players from going.”

Sanchez, 29, had a breakout season with a 13-5 record and a 2.50 ERA in 2025 and finished second to Pittsburgh’s Paul Skenes for the NL Cy Young Award. He joins a long list of Phillies players who have committed to playing for teams in the WBC. Outfielder Johan Rojas and Sanchez will be teammates for the Dominican Republic team. Fellow pitchers Taijuan Walker (Mexico), Aaron Nola (Italy), and recently acquired reliever Brad Keller (USA) are also going to pitch in the WBC. Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber will also play for Team USA. Edmundo Sosa will play for Panama and catcher Garrett Stubbs will play for Israel.

One Phillies pitcher has announced he will not pitch in this year’s tournament. Jesus Luzardo, who pitched for Venezuela in 2023 announced he will not leave camp this spring to pitch in the World Baseball Classic. Luzardo also had a big season in 2025 — 15-7, 3.92 in 32 starts — and is a free agent following the 2026 season. The 28-year-old lefty told The MLB Network earlier this week:

It was a tough decision, but going off of a career-high in innings last year and a career-high in workload, looking forward to a free-agent year, I thought it was the most intelligent decision to kinda bypass the Classic, unfortunately. It was something [that was a], again, super hard and super difficult decision, but I felt like it was the most intelligent one. Hopefully, in three or four years, I’m able to do it again and represent Venezuela.” 

The “30-Inning Rule” and the WBC

The concerns about his workload last season are something that some have thought should be a consideration for Sanchez as well. Luzardo bested his career-high innings mark of 178.2 in 2023 by five innings last season finishing with 183.2 innings of work for the Phillies. Sanchez set a career-high in 2024 when he threw 181.2 innings and topped that easily by going 202 innings for the Phillies.

When a pitcher throws substantially more innings than their previous career high, teams worry about fatigue-related performance decline and increased injury risk, especially to the shoulder and elbow. The commonly cited guideline is the “30-inning rule,” which suggests that increases of more than about 20–30 innings year over year correlate with higher injury rates the following season. The concern isn’t the innings total by itself, but the sudden workload jump without enough time for the body to adapt.

Sanchez would have just crossed the 20 inning increase last season, and the fact that he is in his prime lessen the concern for the Phillies. However, in 2023, Sanchez threw a total of 149 innings between Triple-A Lehigh Valley and Philadelphia and took a big jump to his 2024 level of 181.2 innings.

Increasing a pitcher’s workload by those amount of innings in back-to-back seasons turns the yellow flag that Sanchez would have had this season into a red flag. The studies that have been done on the increasing workloads show an increase in soft tissue and/or elbow issues. For most pitchers the injury is preceded by a dip in velocity and the loss of command.

There is no hard-and-fast rule on pitchers who increase innings from one year to the next. Not every pitcher experiences the same issues, nor does every pitcher wind up on the IL with an injury. It’s just something that teams are conscious of and look to avoid. Of course, in a pennant race, the concerns are outweighed. But pitching in the WBC doesn’t carry the same weight even though pitchers do want to represent their country.

Sanchez is not a free agent after the season. In fact, he has a guaranteed $22.5-million coming for each of the next three seasons with team options for 2029 and 2030.