Heading into the 2025 season, right-handed reliever Yosber Sanchez was a hard-throwing relief prospect on the rise. There were even hopes that he might be ready to pitch in the Detroit Tigers bullpen by the second half of the season. Unfortunately, he too dealt with injuries and struggled some in making the jump from High-A to the Double-A level. His season ended in late August with an arm injury during an outing in which his fastball velocity dropped precipitously. As a result he’s just another
example of a problem in the system in terms of developing pitchers and keeping them healthy. That has to be priority one for the new director of pitching as the Tigers continue their search for Gabe Ribas replacement.
Sanchez was originally signed as an international free agent by the Texas Rangers back in 2018. He debuted in the Dominican Summer League in 2019, but after the COVID year he struggled to develop his control and never did come stateside. The Rangers eventually released him in early 2023 and the Tigers picked him as a minor league free agent.
The power stuff was evident early on, but he continued to have serious bouts of wildness as the Tigers brought him from the DSL to Florida to pitch in the Complex League and then Single-A Lakeland late in the 2023 season. In 2024 he broke out, racking up a ton of strikeouts as he pitched in Lakeland and then moved to High-A West Michigan. He was still walking too many hitters but the misses weren’t as big and his velocity starting hitting triple digits with some regularity. Unfortunately, that progress stalled out in 2025.
The Tigers moved him up to Double-A Erie at the end of April, and while he missed a few weeks with a finger laceration in late May and early June, he looked like he was rounding into form in July and August. He was regularly going two innings for manager Andrew Graham, and while he still had stretches where he got a little wild, the stuff was generally overpowering even at the higher level. Then, on August 25 he saw his velocity collapse mid-outing and called for the trainers. He didn’t appear to be in serious pain, but something was clearly wrong with his arm. That was the last we heard about him.
Sanchez only stands 6”1” so he’s not the prototypical power pitcher, but he’s put together well and has filled out during his time with the Tigers. He has strong legs and good balance, and prior to a little dip in velocity leading up to the injury, was pretty comfortably 97 mph with a few extra ticks up his sleeve on a good night. We didn’t see as many triple digit fastballs this year after he made waves in 2024 by topping 100 mph repeatedly for a stretch of games. He just hasn’t been able to repeat his fairly high effort delivery consistently enough to push his way to the major leagues.
The stuff is already major league quality. On top of the quality velocity, he shows some ability to vary the movement between a pretty straight fourseamer and a little more twoseam action when he wants it. His delivery is pretty compact and he doesn’t have the stride or limb length for good extension, so the fastball does play down a little bit, but it’s still a plus heater even at 97 mph, which was his average most of the season.
He backs up the fastball with a wipeout slider in the low-80’s that draws a ton of swings and misses when he’s spotting it well. You can find reports around that suggest he has both a curveball and a slider, but it’s essentially the same pitch with variations in his release to emphasize depth or sweep depending on how he’s trying to attack the hitter. A lesser used changeup is still just a show-me pitch though it has a lot of velocity separation, and he’s toyed with a 91 mph cutter at times to give hitters a different look. He gets a good amount of whiffs overall, and even at the Double-A level hitters really struggled to square him up.
I consdered dropping Sanchez down into the 35+ tier here, but he’s still just a little more consistent command from getting looks in the Tigers’ bullpen too. A very all or nothing proposition, like many power relief prospects. He’ll rip through several really good appearances in a row and look close to a breakthrough, and then issue a walk or two in an outing before posting a few more clean frames. Now 24 years old and due to turn 25 in May, the injury adds another big question mark just as he really needs to start putting it all together. If he’s resolved the arm trouble, he’s still got to do a lot better job correcting himself during an outing to pitch in the major leagues.
Fastball velocity is still very important, but young hitters are getting used to it earlier too and so Sanchez has got to be able to work around the zone more effectively rather than just trying to blow hitters away at the top rail. We’ll keep a 40 grade on him and see if 2026 is the year things finally come together for him. If so, he’ll move very quickly, but it was a disappointing season and it’s fair to be pretty skeptical that he’s going to make it at this point.
