Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Cristopher Sánchez is guaranteed $104 million in a six-year contract for 2027-32, a deal that contains $20 million in deferred money payable from 2035-44.
Sanchez will keep his $3 million salary this season as part of a $22.5 million, four-year contract that started last year. The 29-year-old left-hander gave up the $16 million remaining in guaranteed money through 2028 as part of that deal.
His agreement, announced Sunday, includes a $6 million signing bonus payable within 30 days of the contract's approval by Major League Baseball, according to details obtained by The Associated Press. He will receive salaries of $6 million in 2027, $9 million in 2028, $14 million in 2029, $15 million in 2030 and $27 million each in 2031 and 2032.
Philadelphia will defer $10 million each from his 2031 and 2032 salaries, which each will be payable in five $2 million installments. The 2031 money is due every July 1 from 2035-39 and the 2032 money every July 1 from 2040-44.
Sánchez's deal includes a conditional team option for 2033 at $10 million, and the option price would escalate to $32.5 million if he is not on the injured list for 130 or more consecutive days during the season in 2031 or '32. The option price would escalate based on Cy Young Award voting from 2027-32, at $2 million for first place, $1 million for second or third, $750,000 for fourth or fifth and $500,000 for sixth through 10th.
A buyout would attach for the 2033 option at the same escalators and amounts. Sánchez would get a $1 million assignment bonus if traded and he receives hotel suite on road trips.
His new contract includes the same salaries for 2026-29 as in his prior deal and guarantees the option amounts for 2030-31, which included a $1 million buyout, so it in effect adds $88 million in new money for four more guaranteed seasons.
Sánchez went 13-5 with a 2.50 ERA in 32 starts last season and struck out a career-high 212 batters. He is 30-21 overall in four full big league seasons.
He became the fourth Phillies starter with a long-term deal. Jesús Luzardo this month finalized a $135 million, five-year contract that starts in 2027. Zack Wheeler has a $126 million deal through 2027 and Aaron Nola a $172 million, seven-year agreement through 2030.
Rookie Andrew Painter is under team control through 2031 and earned the fifth starter spot in the rotation.
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
FILE - Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Cristopher Sanchez claps as he walks off the field after a ground out by Los Angeles Dodgers' Andy Pages during the fifth inning in Game 4 of baseball's National League Division Series, Oct. 9, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Travel disruptions deepened Tuesday as senators raced to salvage a proposal to end the Homeland Security shutdown by funding much of the department, including airport workers going without pay, but excluding immigration operations that have been core to the dispute.
The sudden sense of urgency comes as U.S. airports are snarled by long security lines, with travelers being told to arrive hours before their flights in Houston, Atlanta and Baltimore/Washington International. Routine Department of Homeland Security funding was halted in mid-February ahead of the busy spring travel season. Nearly 11% of Transportation Security Administration workers who were scheduled to report for duty Monday — more than 3,200 — missed work, and at least 458 have have quit altogether since the shutdown began, according to DHS.
Democrats are refusing to fund the department without restraints on Trump's immigration enforcement and mass deportation operations after federal agents killed two citizens in Minneapolis.
“The time to end this is now,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.
But Democrats panned the offer as insufficient. And President Donald Trump himself was noncommittal.
“I think any deal they make, I’m pretty much not happy with it,” Trump said at an event at the White House swearing in his new Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
Airport conditions have become increasingly unpredictable with swelling crowds seen in major hubs. Travelers headed to LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy airports in New York — as well as Newark Liberty International in neighboring New Jersey — still couldn’t check online TSA wait times Tuesday morning.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were spotted in terminals, including at Philadelphia International Airport, where a protester was seen at one of the checkpoints holding a sign criticizing ICE. In Houston, passengers at George Bush Intercontinental Airport spent hours Tuesday navigating meandering security lines that twisted and turned across multiple floors.
Airport wait times listed in the MyTSA mobile app may be outdated because the agency isn’t actively updating its websites during the shutdown.
The contours of the deal emerged once a group of Republican senators met with Trump at the White House late Monday, after he upended talks and deployed federal immigration officers at certain airport security checkpoints — a move some lawmakers warned could lead to heightened tensions.
The proposal would fund most of Homeland Security, but not one main part of ICE — the enforcement and removal operations that are core to Trump's deportation agenda.
Under the plan, ICE's Homeland Security Investigations would be funded as well as Customs and Border Protection, and it would include funding for officers to wear body cameras, but few other restraints.
The proposal was not substantially different from one the two sides had already agreed on before the deaths sparked demands for more changes, according to a person granted anonymity to discuss the details, which have not been publicly released.
For example, there was no mandate that immigration officers wear identification or other changes the White House had floated earlier in talks, including a ban on immigration enforcement at schools, churches, hospitals and other sensitive places, the person said.
While the ICE officers manning airports are going without face-covering masks, the Democratic demand that they go unmasked during immigration operations does not appear to be part of the deal.
“We need strong, strong reforms and we need to rein in ICE," said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer.
Since so much of ICE is already funded through Trump's big tax breaks bill, immigration officers are still receiving paychecks despite the shutdown.
Congress is controlled by the Republican president's party, and any deal would also have to be approved by the House. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said his party members insist on “bold” changes to ICE.
On Tuesday, Delta Air Lines confirmed it was suspending its specialty services for members of Congress amid the shutdown, meaning those who fly with the carrier will be treated like other passengers based on their SkyMiles status. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution first reported the suspension.
Key to ending the standoff appears to be the senators' ability to shift the president's attention off his plan to link any department funding to his push to pass the so-called SAVE America Act, a strict proof-of-citizenship and voter ID bill that has stalled in the Senate ahead of the midterm elections.
Over the weekend Trump injected his demand for the voting bill as a condition for ending the funding standoff. Some GOP senators have pitched the idea of tackling it in another legislative package ahead.
“It’s not a perfect deal but I think it works,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who met with Trump and thinks the president is on board. “If you’re waiting in line four hours in Atlanta, this madness needs to come to an end."
The White House on Tuesday stressed that conversations were ongoing. But it also said an agreement to split off immigration enforcement funding, while addressing Trump’s elections bill separately, “seems to be acceptable.”
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said his understanding was that there was a “sense of urgency” coming from the talks as the airport disruptions worsen.
The deal could provide a political exit from the standoff over the embattled Department of Homeland Security, which was created in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks but has come to symbolize Trump’s aggressive mass deportation agenda, with its goal of removing 1 million immigrants this year.
Under mounting political pressure, Trump ousted Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem amid the public outcry over the immigration operations, and senators late Monday confirmed Mullin, one of their own, as the president's handpicked replacement.
Mullin, an Oklahoma senator who aligns with Trump's agenda, provides a potentially new face for the department. During his confirmation hearing, Mullin touched on another key demand of Democrats — ensuring a judge has signed off on warrants that immigration officers use to search people's homes, rather than simply relying on administrative warrants issued by the department.
“This is significant,” Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., said about the progress toward changes. "Noem is gone. That’s a big deal.”
ICE’s budget grew under last year’s bill by $75 billion, which has been untouched by the shutdown. Rather, its routine annual funding, some $10 billion, would be cut almost in half under the proposal.
After weeks of missed paychecks, many TSA agents have called in sick or even quit their jobs as financial strains pile up. Union leaders representing the workers have pushed Congress to reach a deal.
Associated Press writers Rio Yamat in Las Vegas, Wyatte Grantham-Philips in New York, Lekan Oyekanmi in Houston and Kevin Freking, Seung Min Kim and Stephen Groves in Washington contributed to this report.
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent works at the baggage check at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
President Donald Trump listens as Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin during the swearing-in at the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, March 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., talks with reporters asking about a proposal to end the Homeland Security budget stalemate, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
A TSA worker, left, screens an airline passenger at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
Department of Homeland Security, Transportation Security Administration, Federal Air Marshals, patrol around Washington Dulles International Airport, in Chantilly, Va., Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce)
Travelers line up at a TSA checkpoint at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
Travelers line up at a TSA checkpoint at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Lekan Oyekanmi)
Travelers line up at a TSA checkpoint at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
Travelers line up at a TSA checkpoint at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Lekan Oyekanmi)
People wait in a TSA line at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Monday, March 23, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., talks to reporters about a funding bill to end the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security shutdown that began more than a month ago, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, March 23, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
