There is no question that Marlins right-hander Sixto Sanchez and Dodgers righty Dustin May are among the most promising pitching prospects in baseball. Outlets such as MLB.com, Baseball America and FanGraphs each rank them as two of the 50 best prospects in the game. The only site that puts much of a gap between the two is FanGraphs, which has May at No. 14 and Sanchez 48th. They’re otherwise neck and neck – MLB.com places Sanchez 22nd and May 23rd, while BA also gives Sanchez a bit of an edge (16th to May’s 20th).
As we continue comparing the two, it’s worth taking a look at their professional careers to this point. Now 22 years old, the 6-foot-6, 180-pound May joined the Dodgers as a third-round pick in 2016. His quality repertoire consisting of a fastball that can reach the upper 90s, a cutter and a curveball has helped him mow down the competition so far. He got to the Triple-A level for the first time last season and thrived over 27 1/3 innings, notching a 2.30 ERA with 7.9 K/9, 2.96 BB/9 and a 60 percent groundball rate. That’s obviously not a large sample of work (just five starts), but it was enough to convince the Dodgers to promote May to the majors on the final day of July.
How much time May will spend with the Dodgers in 2020 (if there is a season) remains to be seen, but the man known as “Gingergaard” made a compelling case that he’s a major league-caliber hurler during his initial MLB action. May totaled 14 appearances (four starts) and logged a 3.63 ERA/2.90 FIP with 8.31 K/9, a stunningly low 1.3 BB/9 and a respectable 44.4 percent grounder rate across 34 2/3 innings. Maybe he won’t realize his potential this year, but May has “All-Star, mid-rotation” upside, FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen wrote in February.
The Dominican-born Sanchez, 21, has been a much-needed ray of hope for the Marlins since he joined the franchise in a blockbuster trade in February 2019. Sanchez was the headlining prospect the Marlins received from the division-rival Phillies for star catcher J.T. Realmuto, and continued to boost his stock in his first year with the Miami organization. He carved up the competition during his first try in Double-A, where he recorded a 2.53 ERA/2.69 FIP, struck out almost a hitter per inning, walked fewer than two per nine and induced grounders at a 47.9 percent clip in 103 frames. Sanchez can throw very hard, even reaching triple digits on occasion, though Longenhagen cautions that his “fastball plays beneath its velocity right now because it has sub-optimal underlying components.” There are also concerns about Sanchez’s injury history, but thanks in part to great secondary offerings and plus command, there’s front-of-the-rotation potential if he stays healthy.
Sanchez and May certainly count as a pair of the most exciting young pitchers in the game. But if you can only take one, which one would you choose? (Poll link for app users)
Face…..off
No more drugs for this guy.
Sixto gained like 40lbs over the winter. The dude is a chonk now. I’m interested to see how it will affect his performance
The new Big Sexy?
He wasn’t exactly the biggest dude to start
Anderson Espinoza needs to gain 40 pounds
And hopefully a new right arm
I’d go with May. Sixto’s delivery worries me, and he’s injury prone
Mays delivery is annoying and he will get hit hard soon rather than later
You’re annoying.
I have more faith in LAD to develop a prospect than MIA
Even worse, he has drafted by my Phillies….I have to agree…
The crop job could use some work. Did your photoshop guy take a covid break?
And the Internet Jerk of the Day award goes to….bigdaddyt! *eyeroll*
Sanchez has always worked out better in OOTP ill go with him
I enjoy OOTP but it has KC, Pittsburgh and SF leading in mid-June. The CG’s and CG SHO’s are through the roof. 130-158 pitches on a routine basis. The pitchers just have ridiculous stamina. So they get all the decisions, pretty much. I haven’t touched the pitching settings. There’s more but I ‘ll get off the soapbox now. Still, a fun game to play.
give me may all day everyday . no doubt
Dustin May by far. Name one Marlins prospect that lived up to expectations in recent years. None.
Not many, but Jose Fernandez would have been a top 5 SP.
Brian Anderson, Zac Gallen, Sandy Alcantara, and to certain extents, Pablo Lopez, Nick Anderson, Isan Diaz, Edward Cabrera, and Jerar Encarnacion. It’s not like the Loria group left the Sherman group much to work with.
Zac Gallen and Nick Anderson didn’t develop until after they were traded. The rest are average at best.
Zac Gallen, the dude who was the 3rd prospect in the Ozuna trade, was seen as a throw in, and then went on to throw 91 innings of sub 2 ERA at AAA, developed in Arizona? Nick Anderson took a step forward with the Rays but was still a good player for the marlins. Brian Anderson is a gold glove candidate at 2 positions and provides above average offensive production. Cabrera refined his stuff under the new group and went from reliever prospect to someone with top of the rotation stuff. But yeah, average lmao
Gallen was lights out at New Orleans and was also very good when called up to Miami.
Gallen had a 2.72 ERA in 7 starts with the Marlins in 2019. Anderson had a 3.92 ERA in 45 appearances for the Marlins. Your illogical hatred of the Marlins is showing.
hahaha.. do you even know what you’re talking about? Zac Gallen had like 6 starts in Arizona. Everything else was in Miami and their AAA affiliate.
Jose Fernandez. Brian Anderson. Sandy Alcantara. Harold Ramirez.
people really forgot about Ramirez. he’s on pace to well exceed expectations from the start of last year.
Sixto by a mile. May’s hype preceeds him.
I’m going with May because of the team that’ll be backing him up. Marlins have no such luxury.
Thank you Johnny Superscout
May has already shown that he can handle major league hitters. Sanchez hasn’t pitched above AA. This is an easy one.
May is a year older and has 38 MLB innings, it’s not like he’s had anything more than a cup of coffee lol
Cups of coffee don’t make postseason rosters lol.
So yes May is more advanced than Sanchez. Whether it’s because he’s a year older or not is besides the point.
Cups of coffee make playoff rosters all the time.
Feel free to take this down time to really analyze his 3 and 1/3 innings and one K in the postseason. Sixto was MLB ready last year but there’s no reason to rush him.
Okay, name them.
of the top of my head alone i can think of Dobnak and Shaw from the past few years.
He was in the bullpen starting in July and had a postseason spot. Keep hating
By that logic, Willy Adames is easily better than Wander Franco.
I think Sixto has the higher upside/more potential. Especially given the fact that he can reach triple digits on his FB — he’s also been more effective in the minors (albeit lower levels) than May was in A/AA. Having said that I think that May is as close to a “sure thing” in terms of that he’ll definitely be a mid-rotation arm AT WORST and has the potential to be an AS-caliber SP if things break right. But the reason I’m going with Sanchez is because I think his raw stuff is that much better — if he does develop more as a ‘pitcher’ I think he has the ability to be an elite level talent. Whereas I think May’s ceiling is more of a solid #2. I’ll admit I also recognize there’s a chance Sixto won’t ever reach his potential or will be converted to a RP if he doesn’t hone his skillset more. However having said all that I’m still going with Sanchez because of the higher potential/ceiling.
Sixto is the next Pedro.
Sixto’s changeup is not in the same ballpark as Pedro. Not even close. Same goes for his command.
One of Sixto’s best tools is his command. Granted, no prospect should be Pedro
haha you just mentioned Sixto’s 2 best tools: His command and his changeup. Oh and he throws 100 MPH. Why do you give out your opinions about things you know nothing about?
His changeup is borderline great, but it doesn’t measure up to Luzardo’s, Paddack’s, Strasburg’s or Castillo’s, much less Pedro’s. His command is plus, but it doesn’t compare to Grienke, Tanaka, Paddack, Ryu, Rodriguez or Pedro. I can understand you love him and it’s easy to see why, but he isn’t Pedro Martinez. Pedro was one of the best pitchers in history. I think it is safe to say that Sixto will not be.
You have absolutely no idea about Sixto’s changeup or command. You don’t watch his games. No need in debating if he’s going to be better than those pitchers you mentioned (excluding Pedro obviously). He’s a PROSPECT. We won’t be sure until we see him in the bigs, but both his changeup and his command have the PROJECTABILITY to reach or surpass those players.
I see May becoming more of a #2 or #3 starter than an ACE. He doesn’t have a true strikeout pitch for RHH. Neither one does really. But May will be all 2 seam FB to RHH and CUT FB to LHH. If hitters can foul those off he will have to rely on his curve ball as his put away pitch. I don’t see that working out exceptionally well. Besides which he has never put up a season with an ERA under 3.00 in the minor leagues. It’s hard to see him doing better than that in the majors. I see him as a 3.50-4.00 ERA quality starter but not an ACE. That being said I don’t have a lot of faith in Sanchez either.
Seems about right, Id liken May to be a good version of Shark which is very productful-
3.75 era as the median would be acceptable in todays day and age and I think a good estimate by you
May is 2010 right now, per Dodgers.. 180
Was when he was drafted out of HS…
210
May is a full year older than Sanchez so lets compare how May was performing in 2018 to how Sanchez performed in 2019.
May –
A+ ball – 3..29 ERA 17 starts 98.1 IP 8.6 K/9
AA ball – 3.67 ERA 6 starts 34.1 IP 7.3 K/9
Overall – 3.38 ERA 23 starts 132.2 IP 8.3 K/9
Sanchez –
A+ ball – 4.91 ERA 2 starts 11.0 IP 4.9 K/9
AA ball – 2.53 ERA 18 starts 103.0 IP 8.5 K/9
Overall – 2.76 ERA 20 starts 114.0 IP 8.1 1 K/9
Sanchez spent more of his age 21 season at AA and pitched better. If there is a 2020 season we will see who performs better, but so far Sixto Sanchez has done better.
May throws his sinker at 96 with over 20 inches of movement. On top of that, he has a cutter, curve and 4 seamer. Kinda undersold his restore here
His fastball and curve spin were at the top of MLB…
Then add on the best player development group in baseball. This page is pretty nuts, then remember he’s a 22 year old rookie
It’s May all day
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/dustin-may-669160?stats=statcast-r-pitching-mlb
Just an FYI, his sinker had 20 inches of drop yes, but that includes gravity. When compared to average his sinker had an extra 1/2 inch of drop and 2 inches of horizontal movement. Good but not amazing. Also, his spin rates were “some of the best at the Wood Bat Association Championship in 2015.” So he had some of the best spin rates in high school, not mlb. Let’s not get carried away.