Aníbal Alejandro Sánchez Jr. (Spanish: [aˈniβal ˈsantʃes]; born February 27, 1984) is a Venezuelan former professional baseball pitcher.

He made his Major League Baseball (MLB) debut in 2006 with the Florida Marlins and also played for the Detroit Tigers, Atlanta Braves, and Washington Nationals.

In the following year, he returned to the mound, this time making his debut on American soil with the short-season Single-A Lowell Spinners.

In 15 starts, Sánchez posted a 3–4 record with a 1.77 earned run average (ERA), and by the end of the year was widely considered one of Boston's top pitching prospects.

After the 2004 season, Baseball America named Sánchez Boston's fifth-best prospect, behind shortstop Hanley Ramírez, outfielder Brandon Moss, and pitchers Jonathan Papelbon and Jon Lester.

[1] By 2006, Ramírez, Papelbon, and Lester had all played in the majors; Moss was selected as the Portland Sea Dogs most valuable player in 2006.

At the end of the 2005 season, Boston traded Sánchez along with Hanley Ramírez, Jesús Delgado, and Harvey García to the Florida Marlins, in the same transaction that brought Josh Beckett, Guillermo Mota, and Mike Lowell to the Red Sox.

In addition to Beckett and Lowell, the Marlins traded several of their other star players after the 2005 season, including Carlos Delgado, Juan Pierre, Paul Lo Duca, and Luis Castillo, for mainly minor-league prospects.

Baseball America ranked Sánchez third in the Marlins system (after Jeremy Hermida and Ramirez) and 40th overall in the major leagues at the start of the 2006 season.

Before their game against the Philadelphia Phillies on September 30, the Marlins presented Sánchez with the pitching rubber and home plate used in his no-hitter.

When reliever Jorge Julio returned to the team from the disabled list on May 4, the Marlins demoted Sánchez to Class AAA Albuquerque, citing his struggles with control.

[14] Another shortened season limited Sánchez to 16 starts in 2009, but he saw improvements in his stats, finishing with a 3.87 ERA and his lowest WHIP and opponent's batting average since his rookie year.

On July 23, 2012, Sánchez was traded to the Detroit Tigers along with Omar Infante for Jacob Turner, Rob Brantly, Brian Flynn and a draft pick.

In Game 3 of the 2012 World Series, Sánchez struck out eight over seven innings, but took the loss in the Tigers 2–0 defeat to the San Francisco Giants.

[21] On September 11, Sánchez won his 14th game of the 2013 campaign in a 1–0 defeat of the Chicago White Sox to establish a new career high for wins in a season.

In Game 1 of the American League Championship Series on October 12, Sánchez struck out four Boston Red Sox batters in the first inning, due to a wild pitch on one of the strikeouts.

[29] Sánchez began 2015 as the Tigers' #2 starter, due to the offseason loss of Max Scherzer and an injury to Justin Verlander.

He showed signs of turning the season around in June, allowing no runs in back-to-back starts against the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds.

Sánchez struggled for a second straight season, posting a 7–13 record with an ERA of 5.87, while allowing 30 home runs, a new career high.

On February 20, 2018, Sánchez signed a one-year, $2.5 million deal with the Minnesota Twins that was conditional on making the club out of spring training.

Coming off a productive bounceback season with the Braves, Sánchez signed a $19 million two-year deal with the division rival Washington Nationals on December 27, 2018.

Sánchez earned his 100th career win on June 16, 2019, against the Arizona Diamondbacks[41] In 2019 he was 11–8 with a 3.85 ERA in 30 starts, and led all NL pitchers in errors with four.

[42] In Game 1 of the 2019 National League Championship Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, Sánchez took a no-hitter into the 8th inning before allowing a pinch-hit single to José Martínez with two outs.

No other pair of starting pitchers has ever held the same team hitless through the first five innings of consecutive postseason games; Sánchez and Scherzer have now done it twice.

On February 23, 2021, it was reported that Sánchez had turned down "multiple" major league offers since he held a January showcase, stating that he was concerned over COVID-19 and the protocols that surround it.

Baseball writer Mike Axisa stated in 2013, "Rotation mates Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander overpower hitters.