TODAY: Marlins general manager Kim Ng provided some more detail on Sanchez’s timeline, telling MLB.com’s Christina De Nicola and other reporters that the team is hopeful Sanchez will be able to resume throwing in three months. Pitching in winter ball, however, is “probably not in his cards,” Ng said.
JULY 5: The Marlins announced Monday that right-hander Sixto Sanchez will undergo season-ending surgery after an MRI revealed a small tear in the posterior capsule of his right shoulder. The hope is that he’ll be ready for Spring Training 2022.
It’s an awful development for the Marlins and for Sanchez himself, who has long been touted as one of the game’s most promising young arms. That potential was on full display in 2020, when the Fish called Sanchez up for his MLB debut and he turned in a 3.46 ERA through his first seven big league starts — despite having just turned 22 years of age.
Sanchez averaged 98.8 mph on his power sinker, and while he didn’t rack up strikeouts at the level some might’ve hoped (20.9 percent), he showed above-average control (seven percent walk rate) and ranked seventh among 158 MLB starting pitchers (min. 30 innings) with a 58 percent ground-ball rate. There was certainly some hope for more missed bats down the line, too. Sanchez’s 12.8 percent swinging-strike rate was quite sound for a starting pitcher, and his 38.7 percent chase rate on pitches outside the strike zone ranked fourth in that same set of 158 starters.
Unfortunately, Sanchez won’t end up throwing a single pitch for the Marlins in 2021. His start this spring was delayed due to Covid protocols, and the Marlins optioned him late in camp after he threw just 8 1/3 innings in Spring Training. While many immediately jumped to the service time argument, it was clear that wasn’t the case. Sanchez would’ve needed to be held down until the end of this month in order to push back his free agency, and there’s no chance that’d have happened had he been healthy. (They also had no qualms about top prospect Jazz Chisholm breaking camp as the everyday second baseman, even though it’d have been far easier to delay his free agency than that of Sanchez.)
The target for Sanchez was a mid-April 2021 debut, but he cut a workout at the team’s alternate site short in early April after complaining of shoulder discomfort. His throwing program was paused for more than a month. Upon restarting, Sanchez again quickly pushed pause, although this time general manager Kim Ng (in retrospect, somewhat ominously) indicated that the new discomfort Sanchez had felt was unrelated to the initial inflammation with which he was diagnosed back in April.
The end result of the entire sequence, unfortunately for Sanchez, is that he won’t accrue big league service time in 2021. If he indeed sustained his injury while throwing on the minor league side, that would seem to boil down to little more than awful timing. The Miami Herald’s Craig Mish tweets, however, now suggests that a tear was discovered in Sanchez back in March, but rehab was recommended. Sanchez was optioned to the team’s alternate site on March 29. If there’s some form of documentation indicating that a tear was discovered prior to being optioned, that sort of situation is the type that will often result in a service-time grievance.
It should be noted that it’s still possible for Sanchez to reach a full year of MLB service in 2021, however. He entered the season with 103 days of service time, meaning he’d only need 69 days on the MLB roster in order to pass one full year of service and remain on track for free agency after the 2026 campaign. If the Marlins were to call Sanchez to the MLB roster and place him on the 60-day IL in order to open a 40-man roster spot, he’d receive service time for any days spent on the Major League injured list. Were such a move to happen on or before July 26, he’d still end up with a year-plus of service time (though his camp could conceivably still push for retroactive service to secure MLB pay for the season’s first few months).
To be clear, none of this is to imply any nefarious plot on the Marlins’ part. The team, after all, called Sanchez up in the first place last year when it could’ve at least defensibly kept him at the alternate site. The aforementioned Chisholm promotion is another example of forgoing service time manipulation when an opportunity otherwise presented itself.
The timing of the tear’s discovery, relative to the timing of Sanchez being optioned out of big league camp, will prove crucial. So, too, will the timing of a theoretical placement on the MLB 60-day IL — if the Marlins go that route at all. Opting not to do so would be tantamount to finishing out the season with a 39-man roster, however, so it’s in their interest to make such a move at some point. The question is just whether it’s made in time for Sanchez to reach one-plus years of service in 2021.
Thoughts and prayers for a speedy recovery.
Repetition is a form of acceptance. More power to you Fever Pitch Guy
Thanks Curly, and BTW love your handle!
Fever pitch guy for president 2024
Thanks, I’m honored!
Never want to see anyone, ESPECIALLY a guy named Sixto get surgery on his arm. This dudes gonna be a stud and the Marlins got somethin special
Sixto Lezcano had hand, wrist and elbow injuries … but luckily, never needed arm surgery.
Health was always an issue as far back as his days in the Phillies system. While he looks like a stud, he may be one of those guys who never stays healthy.
young SP talent – volitile as all get out
Exactly. It’s why I don’t mind the idea of trading top pitching prospects for proven big league talent. Top hitting prospects can be gotten by injury as well, but not as much as pitchers. Sure it can bite you, but if you have to trade one choose young pitchers and trade FOR young hitters.
Also why I’d prefer my team (Pirates) draft a position player with the first pick. Trade for pitching talent that has made it further along in the minors. Seems like half of the pitching prospects are derailed by major injuries early on.
I agree. As a RS, I won’t complain if Leiter falls into our lap, but would prefer one of the two shortstops.
But, FWIW, I am not enamored with drafting catching either. Half of the them don’t last at the position. Even with pitchers, if they don’t have the health or consistency to be a starter, you often wind up with a good RP. Catchers seem all or nothing at all (unresearched).
Because Big league players don’t get hurt?
They do, but as a much smaller rate than young pitchers. But at least proven big league talent have proven not only that they play at the big league level, but they can also remain healthy for a big league season.
It’s not guaranteed, but what trade is?
Yeah that is a good approach and for example epstein had great success with that. Teams do rate pitching prospects lower however as more teams are emulating that this has caused the price of mlb ready pitching to go up and the price of pitching prospects go down while for hitters it is vice versa, prospects are very expensive and hitters with little control left got cheaper.
That means the develope hitters and buy/trade for pitchers approach has become very expensive.
Leaning a bit on hitting prospects is good but you still need pitching and all pitchers get hurt and a top pitching prospect going down Hurts but your 200m Chris sale going down hurts too.
There is no easy solution.
Fair points. I guess the real answer is that no matter how hard you try or how good you do building a team, the only real factor in winning is luck.
TINSTAAPP
I’m not sure about Sixto, but I’d prefer to be Firsto (should this have two ts?). Unfortunately, the Yankees will not be firsto but fourthto. I guess that’s better than lasto but lasto gets you better draft picks.
Takes a lot of talent to shoehorn a Yankees comment into a Marlins article
I hope the doctor recommended surgery for removing his Sixth Toe
*primero y cuarto (o primera y cuarta if appropriate)
Pretty obvious that you did not grow up in the Bronx with that “firsto & foutho” stuff. But sure…you go ahead & tell us all about our team, bud.
In your “spanish”.
@Nihilus –
My bad, bro.
Didn’t realize that was you! So change my tone of voice from grumpy/exasperated to upbeat/chiding, please.
I apologize off topic, just curious on your thoughts as most of you really really follow the game of baseball.
What are your thoughts of Kris Bryant being traded to the Giants? Do you think that is something Zaidi would even seriously pursue? If not, who else?
Regards..
Yeah,yeah yeahyeahyeahyeahyeah. The Giants are willing to cover the cost for acquiring Kris Bryant. When Zaidi asked what it would take to acquire Kris Bryant, Hoyer replied
“Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack”. “I don’t care if the Cubs ever get back” (to 1st place)
I think Zaidi and the Giants will focus on Texas. A package surrounding Gallo and Ian Kennedy. Cheaper and more control.
I would ask my 3 year old niece before I’d ask this comment section for insightful baseball knowledge
When are these franchises going to realize that pure velocity over the course of 5 innings is a lot more destructive than location and movement over the course of 7 innings.
after the franchises that DO realize that win 2 or 3 more championships
Franchises that have done it won championships for decades. All this velocity first and only worrying bout 2 times through a lineup is all fairly new.
Pitchers would throw at 80-85% and concentrate on movement and location snd dial it up to 95-100% for situations they may need that for.
yeah, I know and agree – Mathewson called it “pitching in a pinch” 100 plus years ago
The teams who can AVERAGE over 6 innings per start have a substantial advantage these days; as do the teams with high BAs and low batter k’s.
Pitcher Ks and batter HRs are ridiculously overrated currently.
I’ve done a little research, but between OPS, OBP, SLG, and HRs, HRs have the lowest correlation with scoring.
check BA – I think it will surprise you
You say it as if the only options are 5 or 7 innings. That’s the problem.
Such a bummer. Kid has a ton of potential.
Keep seeing doom and gloom over this.. It’s not a career ender, like back in the days of like a Wayne Garland. Saberhagen (Bret) had this surgery 2x and came back, until his shoulder went out for time #3 and called it quits. Sabes had a remarkable career into his mid 30’s and won 2 Cy Young’s along the way.
look at the bright side ppl.. he’s young and getting it fixed..
Tough news for the player and organization. He’s still young enough that hopefully he can recover without any setbacks. Just need to take their time getting him healthy.
As a makeup for his shoulder being awful do you think the Marlins would take Rhys Hoskins as a makeup. The Phillies would not be missing much
They’d be missing the majority of their RBIs. 2nd worst defender on the team (Bohm is the worst), but he’s on pace for 90+ RBIs.
Bohm has a high RBI total as well. Doesn’t matter how bad you are, if you play enough games you’ll have a high RBI total. Very overrated stat.
Hmmm. I don’t think it’s an overrated stat as long as it’s not looked at in a vacuum. Hoskins has better offensive numbers than Bohm in most categories this year, and both are horrific on defense. Both pretty disappointing this year.
Marlins already have Aguilar and Cooper belongs at 1st or DH full time.
Looks like the Phillies ended up making a good trade for once.
I’d rather have Sixto and Alfaro. The trade for Realmuto, subsequent re-signing and other free agent spending only sets them back further. They’re a bottom five team in disguise.
Alfaro hasn’t looked good and Sixto already has some significant injury miles. Ignoring what the Phillies are, they got 2 very good seasons from Realmuto in that trade. At this point, it’s not insane to wonder if Sixto and Alfaro will ever deliver that much. Sixto has the talent and promise, but injuries are a huge concern already.
Alfaro is, at best, a bottom tier catcher. Sixto will end up being a solid bullpen arm, nothing more. He will not be able to survive the wear and tear of logging starter innings.
They may have just given him a fat contract, which I guess will impact spending for the next few years, but Phils have arguably the bcib. I for one am still thrilled with the trade even though the team’s overall success continues to let me down.
A small tear in his shoulder is easily fixable. This is much better than a torn UCL or a full labrum or rotator cuff tear. These types of injuries can be repaired and rehabilitated in 4-6 months, so he should be fine for spring training. Can’t wait to see this kid pitch his first full season in MLB. He’s still a top 25 overall prospect even with this latest injury.
Tearing your capsule is far worse than a labrum tear. The chance of coming back to previous form with capsule tear is largely tied to how frayed the rotator cuff is in conjunction. Posterior is better than interior or anterior… but Uriah is the first guy I know of that seems to have gotten back to his prior level… and it took over 3 years.
Perhaps it being only a slight tear might make a difference, however, generally, a capsule tear is about as bad as it gets.
It really depends on the size of the tear. If it is indeed small, then he can easily recover in the 4-6 month timeframe. The problem is that the shoulder is so dense, it’s hard to really see how big the tear is until you get in there. If they have to attach anchors then he is in trouble, but if it is just a simple ‘stitch to repair’ tear then he should be fine. I choose to stay optimistic for his sake.
Urias
I would have never taken Sixto Sanchez for Realmuto. The Marlins Ownership is a joke. They have a plus 21 RDIFF and are 11 games under 500. Pathetic.
@Dontbestupid everyone in the league would have made that trade. It was a huge overpay by the Phillies at the time, but unfortunate injuries have turned that around. Realmuto is arguably the best catcher in baseball, but catcher’s have a shorter shelf-life and Sixto is a promising young arm. All of this doesn’t even mention Alfaro who was a young promising catcher as well. It was definitely not a bad trade for the Marlins at the time, but these injuries may make it bad.
Prayers for a speedy recovery
This is horrible so many good pitchers injured this year and having surgery.
I wish Sixto a speedy recovery. That young man is loaded with talent. The fish got a very good deal trading J T. All of baseball were in on that hunt. I was not happy to see Sixto go buy was happy to see Realmuto come to Philly.
Too bad. He was on my fantasy team last year, and had a heck of a ride for a while.
This feels like a really longwinded inevitability. Shame he lost the season. Hopefully next year he’s healthy. There’s a lot to like with the Marlins rotation.
So much for the fish having a fanbase… not a solitary comment from their biggest supporter
only ever comments on Mets threads to diss them. Not a real fan – just a child that hates the Mets.
Get better Sixto – The Marlins sure as heck need you (because they are putrid)
Um, what am I supposed to say that I didn’t say in another thread about this injury?
Please do keep up.
And sorry, but Mets fans that disappear all the time when their team fails should not be commenting about fans from any other team. Your fan base is filled with the most fairweather fans in all of baseball.
And just in closing, since I know you Mets fans are not aware of anything outside of NY, go take a look at all the weather news in the United States over the last 48 hours and for the next few days. We kind of have something important going on in Florida, while dealing with another national news thing in Miami. Learn about the world outside of your borough.
Ok Florida man, keep enjoying your moral victories
1986
Tough break for this kid. Last thing baseball needs is more pitching injuries. Hopefully he can get healthy for next season.
Everyone freaking out but I believe the kid will be fine. If god forbid he suffers another serious injury next year or any time shortly after that, may be time to convert him to a closer to try to keep him healthy.