April 2, 3:05pm: Sanchez has mild inflammation in the back of his shoulder and will rest for a few days, De Nicola tweets. The Marlins don’t have a timetable for his return, but it should be a slow process, per Mish (Twitter link).
10:50am: Sanchez will undergo an MRI, tweets Craig Mish of the Miami Herald.
April 1: Prized Marlins righty Sixto Sanchez cut his most recent throwing session short due to what the Marlins termed “slight discomfort” in his right shoulder, tweets Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald. He’ll be evaluated over the coming days as the Marlins determine a course of action. MLB.com’s Christina De Nicola adds that Sanchez had been slated to throw around five “innings” and 75 pitches in a simulated game but cut things short after just the second frame, at which point he informed the team of the discomfort.
While the decision is being tabbed as a precaution at the moment, there’s some obvious concerning when any pitcher complains of shoulder pain. Sanchez was optioned to the the Marlins alternate site earlier this week, but that decision was only made because he was behind in his throwing after being in Covid-19 protocol earlier in camp. He’d thrown just eight innings during Grapefruit League play, and the Marlins hoped to get him built back up at their alternate site, with an eye toward a mid-month debut in the rotation. The shoulder issue, however, could obviously impact that timeline.
Sanchez made his big league debut in 2020 and impressed through seven starts, pitching to a 3.46 ERA with a 20.9 percent strikeout rate, a 7.0 percent walk rate and a massive 58.0 percent ground-ball rate. He’s considered one of the 10 to 20 best prospects in all of baseball and is viewed by the Marlins as a future linchpin of the rotation. He accrued 103 days of Major League service time in 2020, so there’s no real service-related benefit for the Marlins keeping him down at this time; he’d need to be in the minors through late July in order for his path to free agency to be pushed back another year.
The guy has some serious stuff, hope this does not hold him back. Marlin pitching could get them into postseason again.
My guess is that he will be fine. Late start the spring could bring about stuff like this. Or at least I hope for my fantasy teams sake…
Yeah, shoulder issues for power pitchers aren’t usually a problem. He’ll be fine.
@unicorndog lmfao whaaaaat???? Shoulder issues are a problem for baseball players period! For pitchers specifically shoulder issues are career ending. When your shoulder has inflammation you can’t even lift your arm, much less retract your scapula to throw a baseball. Sorry man but you are 100% wrong.
Yeah, I was yanking axisofhonor25‘s crank. (See comment prior to mine.) But keep up the good work!
#sarcasm
I’m hoping it is indeed just a precaution. I really wanted the Marlins to bring in a veteran SP to take a lot of innings away from our young staff. Prolonged time missed by Sanchez puts more pressure on the rest of our young arms.
Marlins pitching could maybe get them to a 3rd to 4th place team. Their offense is horrendous.
@MetsFan
I love our pitching without a doubt, but it’s still young pitching. I’m thinking big picture and rather have their innings be monitored instead of running them up so early in their careers in the hopes of trying to contend. Last year was nice, and I love the experience our young guys got in a playoff style atmosphere, and then being able to perform in the playoffs, but it’s about long term for us.
As for our offense, the Marlins offense is not a SABR/Analytics/PECOTA favored offense. They are more of an ‘ole school’ small ball type of offense. It’s about manufacturing runs with the Marlins. The only measure of their offense that shows well in stats is their running game. They are literally a team that you have to watch them play to see how their offense works, especially in close games.
I think you’re a bit delusional…. look, they made the postseason last year but they were clearly overwhelmed when they had to face the big boys (Braves). Problem is, the Braves got better this offseason, Phillies got better, National will be better, and Mets got a lot better. there is a real argument that management didn’t make the Marlins better this offseason and took a step back. I would be more concerned about not being bottom feeders of the East again, as the Marlins have been for pretty most years of their existence, than thinking pitching will get them to the playoffs. East is arguably the strongest league in baseball, the Marlins just aren’t talented enough to compete at the top of this division. Give it a couple years when that farm develops (if it develops) … I’d argue they aren’t doing the best job at that, but the talent is there to be solid in the future.
@bravesfan
I’m not sure which of us the comment was toward, but I’ll comment.
The Marlins didn’t need to do as much as the Mets, Phillies and Nats because they had less holes and need to keep a clear path for their young player to break in this year and beyond. They focused on their bullpen this offseason and middle of the lineup because that’s what they needed in the immediate future. But they couldn’t go fill spots with guys that would block their young players. Never count out a young team because you never know when that team will blossom.
As for the way the Marlins looked against the Braves, your team is one of the best teams in the game. Many of the current Marlins are still getting their feet wet. They were obviously a bit overwhelmed in last year’s NLDS. Growing pains. It happens. It happened to your Braves.
I agree it’s about the future.
And a little FYI…the biggest offseason moves the Marlins did were ridding themselves of Mike “Yes Man” Hill, bringing in Kim Ng (even if it turns out to only work for market value), getting their new TV deal with Bally Sports, and getting their new stadium naming rights deal with loanDepot (which seems so appropriate). These moves here are major moves for the Marlins future.
tommy john surgery coming
Not for a shoulder. Hope it’s rotator cuff or something though.
You would hope for a pitching injury to his shoulder? You’re kinda a bad person
I think he’s saying, worse case scenario he’s hoping it’s a rotator cuff issue, and not something wrong with the labrum, if his labrum is torn he won’t be able to throw the same. If it’s a rotator cuff it’s a little less serious.
TJS is for the elbow, not the shoulder.
That’s the old TJS model.
Turns out, it’s actually good for everything!
The miracles of modern medicine, man.
Dumbest comment of the day award
My bad. There was supposed to be “not” in there.
i waisted a draft pick on him, dang lol
Hopefully it wasn’t a high-waisted pick, like first two rounds.
I saw a wasted dude wearing high wasted pants the other day.
Orel Hershiser had his shoulder repaired. It’s in the books as TJS. Procedure performed by Dr. Frank Jobe.
NOC
Was hoping for more dad jokes in here. I enjoyed last articles about him too much. We had someone telling the commenter they were gonna use it on their kids.
Yea, the comments on the last article had about Sixto seven good dad jokes in there.
Oh yeah, well when I was your age everything cost a nickel! And get the hell off of my lawn!
MarlinsFanBase welcome to being a Mets fan. Enjoy your high-powered pitching staff fall apart over the next five years.
Hubris hurts.
As a Mets fan, I really don’t wish our incompetence on any team, even the rival Marlins.
bad bruce wins the thread, fellas.
Hubris. That’s laughable. The Marlins are a rebuilding team that some Mets fans felt a since of rivalry with. That’s ridiculous. Are Yankee fans competing with Orioles fans? Are White Sox fans competing with Tiger fans? Give the Marlins the time they need and they could be a force in the NL East but for now, you look like a grown man picking on a toddler.
Marlins = 2 championships in 28 seasons.
Mets = 2 championships in 58 seasons.
The Marlins have a lot of arms in the pipeline. Even if Sixto goes down, there are at least two or three guys ready to step up. Jeter made a point of accumulating good pitching. Even gave a good one away for Jazz.
Yeah but still unproven arms. I want to see Neidert get some action, Castano filled in well, and former high pick Braxton Garret getting further away from TJS. The team will let Alcantara and Pablo get a full starter workload but everyone else will be on a leash. So like MarlinsFanBase said they could have picked up a veteran to be the fifth man and eat innings and mentor the kids. If by some miracle they did make the playoffs Rogers and Sixto will be in bad innings territory. Edward Cabrera hopefully gets going soon. Maybe even get a Max Meyer appearance.
i hope the best for sixto, shoulders are tricky lot of moving parts and add the stress of throwing overhand. hopefully it’s just soreness for being out due to covid and missing time in st, just when i hear about shoulder or arm tightness i think the worst and hope for better outcome.
This is what I fear about the 2021 season. It’s going to be an ordeal for teams to ramp starting pitchers back to their normal workload and routine. Some say go with a six-man rotation. In my opinion, that would make it worse in the long run when teams eventually go back to a five-man rotation. The challenge in ’21: Eventually getting SPs up to speed without burning out your bullpen in the process. Fingers crossed for Sanchez and all other pitchers as MLB re-enters the 162-game grind.
They have had plenty of time to get back into full season shape. There’s really no excuse.
Good thing the Marlins moved him a few days ago.
Wouldn’t he earn mlb service time if he wasn’t moved to minor league camp prior to the DL?
I believe that is correct. I dont think they could have placed him then sent him down.
If they’d sent him down knowing he was hurt, the option would be rescinded and he’d be placed on the MLB IL in order to avoid a grievance.
In this instance, it seems Sixto didn’t report any discomfort until after being optioned out, which would place him on the minor league IL and prevent him from accruing service time.
Depending on what conversations took place between Sanchez and the staff that we don’t know about, it’s possible they could push to have him on the MLB IL. But if the issue was wholly unknown to the team until after he was optioned, Sixto’s camp wouldn’t have much of a case in a grievance.
been sayin he was gonna have problems since he came up. these young guys throw with an ego thinking they are cool throwing over 100. guy cant even last 3 innings before he cant throw 95 and starts losing command.
braves2, Well-stated. This trend is not a surprise what with the over-emphasis on missing bats. My favorite young pitcher to watch is Soroka. Trusts his stuff enough to throw strikes, doesn’t rely on strikeouts, doesn’t need seven-eight pitches to get a batter out. Pitching not throwing. Overall, I like the Braves SPs for that reason. As a Dodger fan, I fear them the most.
In a year such as this. It’s a surprise that no one has signed Rick Porcello. More than ever, teams will need guys who can provide innings. Porcello’s numbers weren’t great the last two years, but he’s only 32 and would be a good role model in how he goes about his business. Young pitchers can learn a lot by watching and talking to a guy like that.
Agree and also about porcello… his peripherals showed terrible luck last year… unusually high BABIP… upper tier hard/soft contact rates… FIP two runs lower than ERA
It’s the economics of the game. Owners don’t have to sign pitchers to big contracts that may or may not pan out anymore. Pitchers arms are blown out and used up by the time they reach free agency aka the expensive years.
It’s kinda always been that way with pitchers, though more pronounced now. Guys like Denny McLain, Fernando Valenzuela, Bret Saberhagen, Barry Zito, and Tim Lincecum won Cy Young Awards and look like surefire Hall of Famers early on, only to fall well-short by the time their careers were over. A long list of those guys beyond Cy Young winners. It’s harder for pitchers to maintain the needed level of excellence due to stress issues around arms and usage. It would be even worse had Frank Jobe not come along.
I have seen Dodger fans suggest they need to lock up Walker Buehler with a megadeal, but there is no reason to do that. Just keep developing pitchers and let another team pay for his past success when the time comes. Obviously, there are exceptions, but teams need to be careful when it comes to long-term pitching deals.
First and foremost, I hope this is precautionary and I hope he ends up being just fine. But the one worry the Phillies scouts had with Sixto is health. He had some elbow problems with them in the minors. This seems like a completely different issue, so I hope all is well.
If I remember correctly, Sixto was on the DL (now IL) basically the second-half of the 2018 season with arm issues, then was traded for JT after that season. Hopefully this does not linger, but there was concern.
There is no rush to bring sixto back , specially when your the Marlins. So let the shoulder heal. If things are looking up then he’ll be ready come mid season, which shouldn’t even take that long for him to get better. Jeter knows pitching is going to win games , when you can prevent the other team from scoring an you can put up 2-3 runs you’ll win games. Watch the Marlins start looking like the Milwaukee brewers and the Tampa bat rays . Sixto will be fine and he’ll be apart of that along with Alcantara.
Always the risk with young pitching prospects. Seems to be the norm tho with those front line guys.
Tommy John surgery usually starts off with shoulder issues that start up then eventually lead down to the elbow and forearm. All of that torque with throwing devastating pitches with movement can lead to all sorts of tendon to ligament to nerve issues that lead from shoulder down to the elbow.
As a White Sox fan I am looking at a guy like Carlos Rodon who started to have shoulder issues due to being overused in college to the US baseball team before coming up to the MLB. Rodon always had dominating stuff but was not used right in college and did not have time to develop in the minor leagues where the White Sox brought him up sooner than expected since the team had a nice rotation with him in it. Rodon dealt with injuries early in his career where he arthroscopic surgery on his shoulder before getting Tommy John surgery. Odds are the White Sox knew Rodon was going to eventually need to get Tommy John surgery which was why Hahn brought him back this season.
Hopefully Sanchez simply has shoulder inflammation similar to Justin Wilson and he’ll be back in short order. Hate to see promising talent detailed.
whew no shotage of questionable articles today
An article that we can actually comment on. Woot woot!
I expect Sanchez to miss a few weeks. No problem. His shoulder just started barking and reports say it is mild. No need to worry unless/until it becomes persistent.
So if Sixto is on your fantasy team you hold onto him for now?
Absolutely. I just wish he’d go on the IL so I can stash him on my injured reserve instead of taking up a roster spot. I got him in the 7th round of an NL only league, so not too bad.
why isnt Sixto on the IR?