Sixto Sanchez hasn’t pitched since his breakout 2020 rookie season, and naturally, “the frustration was really high” for the right-hander as he continued to battle through shoulder injuries. “It was really hard because it was just setback after setback, and just trying to come back and see that and trying to maintain that positive energy was very difficult. But thank goodness we’re here where we’re at right now and looking forward,” Sanchez told MLB.com’s Christina De Nicola and other reporters. After two full missed seasons and a pair of shoulder surgeries, Sanchez has thrown five bullpen sessions to date, and estimates that he is around 85% readiness as he heads into what he hopes will be a healthy and uninterrupted Spring Training.
It has been just over four years since the Marlins dealt J.T. Realmuto to the Phillies for a trade package that included Sanchez as a centerpiece. The right-hander looked to be living up to the hype in 2020, yet two lost years has basically led to a reset on Sanchez’s career. As he prepared to return to action, Sanchez’s commitment to health extends beyond just shoulder rehab, as he has also lost 46 pounds since last year after adopting new diet and training methods.
More from South Beach…
- Manager Skip Schumaker discussed the team’s lineup with reporters (including Jordan McPherson and Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald), including the specific mention that “Joey Wendle is our shortstop.” With Miguel Rojas traded to the Dodgers, the versatile Wendle looks to have dibs on the starting shortstop job, though utilityman Jon Berti will also get some playing time and prospect Jacob Amaya could be on the longer-term radar. Though Wendle has only 647 2/3 career innings as a shortstop, his glovework at the position has been sharp, as per positive reviews from such metrics as Outs Above Average (+3), UZR/150 (+5.3) and Defensive Runs Saved (+8). Getting Wendle’s bat back on track will also be a priority for the Marlins, as Wendle hit only .259/.297/.360 in 371 plate appearances during a 2022 season hampered by hamstring injuries.
- Terry Collins, Jim Riggleman, and Dave Wallace have all received consideration for advisory roles with the Marlins, the New York Post’s Mike Puma writes. All three have decades of baseball experience in a variety of positions, and all trio all worked in the Dodgers organization when Marlins GM Kim Ng was Los Angeles’ assistant general manager.
Terry Collins will be a fantastic asset for any team’s front office.
Shouldn’t that be Jacob Amaya, the shortstop, instead of Miguel Amaya, the catcher in the Cubs system?
Mistake fixed, thanks for pointing it out!
It’s Jacob Amaya, not Miguel.
If any MLB club hires Jim Riggleman has both a good man but as a manager In waiting to go.
Kind of surprised that some time has not hire Joe Madden there are a lot of bad clubs out there that could use a guy like Joe M with both trades and free agents but also be a manager.
Joe’s schtik doesn’t play on veteran teams and wears off quickly on young teams, not sure what future Baseball holds for Joe but maybe he should try MLB Network.
All three of Wallace/Riggleman/Collins are over 70 so they may not be interested in being Managers in waiting but could certainly help Ng, Schumaker, and the Marlins organization.
Logistics Guy: It’s even more surprising that nobody has considered Joe MADDON. He has a much better track record than Joe Madden, whoever he is.
Isn’t he John’s brother?
Boom!
LOL.
Jim Riggleman is 70 years old. Unfortunately, anyone over 50 is considered over the hill now.
Older brother Fiveto was quite a prospect in bis day.
As were the elder siblings Oneto, Twoto, Threeto, and Fourto!
“Sanchez’s commitment to health extends beyond just shoulder rehab, as he has also lost 46 pounds since last year after adopting new diet and training methods.”
I really hated to lose Sixto in the JTR deal, even though I loved the deal to bring him to Philly. But it brings up a pet peeve…fat and out of shape professional athletes.
I mean – congrats for losing the 46 pounds, but he should have never been carrying them in the first place. Your job is to be an athlete…you are paid really well…they give you all of the time and resources to take care of things. Be a pro and stay in shape…great shape. Or get fined.
wtf this guy
Though I don’t see the OP’s need to get bent out of shape about it, here’s “wtf”
MLB players sign contracts which require them to be in “first-class physical condition and to obey the club’s training rules” – taken from the Loyalty provision of the Uniform Player Contract
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/files/mlb-contract.pdf
Signing an MLB contract is a promise from the player to remain in good shape. Equivalent to a normal employment contract an average person would sign which stipulates they need to show up on time.
That said, I’ve never seen a team try to terminate a contract for a player being obviously out of game shape and under expensive contracts and there are plenty of examples out there so it stands to reason it’s not a terminatable offense. Ryan Howard, Pablo Sandoval, Miguel Sano, etc.
@martras – Well, I might quibble with your “need to get bent out of shape” comment, however the humorous reference fits the subject matter..
The MLBPA has taken the teeth out of enforcing this provision. I understand where they are coming from; owners used to hold too much power to do as they pleased. Hence, we have far too many examples of highly paid athletes that have reduced performance simply due to being well out of shape. Pablo was an egregious example at times…fun dude and terrific natural athlete but he ate himself out of baseball, although after he was paid huge sums for diminished performance due to being in awful shape. Vogelbach is horrendous, but given that no one will pay him much as a result he has already been penalized – no long term deals for this guy.
The equation is simple…if the team is going to guarantee peak pay in the future for a period of years to a player, then they should be able to enforce that clause when pushing comes to shoving. Now, if a player wants to go year to year, the argument becomes almost moot as the exposure is far less of a concern.
Ryan Howard is not a great example. If you ever saw him up close, even when he was working off the later career bum leg and gained some weight, he was always in good shape overall – he was a workout machine. Sure – dropping some of the pounds would have helped, but we have far too many to point to that simply do not seem to care.
Howard’s conditioning was an issue before he signed the contract and he got into better shape before the big contract year, which is a trend repeated over and over and over again.
Very similar to Miguel Sano, Ryan Howard carries his weight exceptionally well with Howard and Sano having similar body types. Both are 6’4″ tall and both ballooned up from their ideal playing weight of 220lbs or so to near 300lbs. Even when Sano was 300lbs, he still just looked like a big guy who might be able to stand to lose 20lbs or something. However, the reality is, carrying an extra 70-80lbs of fat on a frame is carrying an extra 70-80lbs of fat on the frame.
For Sano, that meant his legs were literally breaking because of normal running activities. When he played right field for the Twins, he developed stress reactions in his legs. Many fans wrongly point to the stress reaction (repetitive stress) as being a stress fracture (acute impact) related to fouling a ball off his shin. The extra weight contributes greatly to repetitive lower body injuries.
@martras – All that I can tell you is that my take on Ryan was similar to yours for a while…and yes, he got bigger for sure. But he happened to be a neighbor for a few years, and I saw him a few times and realized up close that he was in FAR better shape than I thought while watching him on the field. So yeah…he absolutely needed to drop some weight for peak performance, he was nowhere near the slobs such as Sandoval and Vogelbach and so on.
@CarverAndrews: Maybe you can set an example when you become a professional athlete. Until you do, however, you are in no position to judge those who do what you can’t while you sit on your butt and criticize, so STFU.
@BB – Ah, the first resort of the logically incoherent…the useless comeback with an attempted insult attached.
It is OK if you think otherwise…if your perspective is that pro athletes that are paid millions per year to play a sport at the highest levels are perfectly fine if they are drastically out of shape, as “we should not judge them”. However, if you are sitting on a comments board for a baseball site throwing opinions around all of the time, you might be slightly exposed with your perspective on things as noted above.
I stand by my thoughts, despite your avowed disapproval. Also been an athlete all of my life and played this game for a number of decades. And know for a fact what it is like to be on that field with an extra 20 pounds despite working out all of the time, and what an incredible difference that it made to take them off for the following season. However the firsthand knowledge in this case is not important, as anyone with a functioning brain knows how important fitness is to peak athletic performance.
Carver i’m not saying you are wrong by any means. But I gotta say I do enjoy the rare overweight good player. Prince fielder, bartolo, panda(early years). Etc. i know they are few and far between which is why i agree. But i do love the big boys like vogelbach.
It’s true, watching Matt Stairs and Rod Beck and the other bigguns of the world have at it on the big stage gave fuel and energy to the dreams of us hefty guys that we, too, could play this game.
@isiight: Rusty Staub, Mickey Lolich, and David Wells!
@CarverAndrews: I don’t care how long you played, but I am willing to bet it wasn’t at any professional level. As I said, refrain from judging and criticizing those who do what you cannot. Insult or no, attempted or otherwise, doing that just makes you look like a foolish idiot. That’s all there is to it.
@isiight and quonset – No doubt there is some entertainment value to some of the big boys. Bartolo was a favorite for sure; there was no one more entertaining, and who will ever forget his HR. John Kruk with his remark – I am a baseball player, not an athlete and who doesn’t love the Krukker. Loved Matt Stairs
But that is simply a different twist on it and it has a lot of merit. My take was on what it is like to be the owner paying the salary, the coaches or the teammates that know that someone is not doing everything possible to be at their best out there. For me, that is rather inexcusable. It would be the same as if you have a coworker on your corporate team that is only partially committed…it impacts everyone around them.
@BB – You are truly simpleminded. You are on a baseball FAN comments board critiquing baseball athletes and organizations all of the time, and I am relatively certain that you have no expertise or background at almost any level in the game. This is what EVERYONE on here does to one extent or another. My own background is far deeper than you imagine, but that is neither here nor there.
My commentary is relevant – if it does not pass your muster I am perfectly content with that. I have already seen enough of your work…you come off like an a**hole (with your snarky, superior comments on grammar and spelling and other things) enough of the time to show your own lack of grace. If you choose to learn how to be polite in the future then that is cool…if not, then just go away.
Interestingly enough, on this very subject we have Austin Meadows quoted on this site today:
“I’m right where I want to be mentally, and I’m right where I want to be physically,” Meadows says. “This offseason has been amazing with having our daughter (Adelynne), being in a much better place mentally and being in a much better physical shape. Everything is starting to go in the right direction.” Meadows provides specifics of how he got into a better place with his anxiety by getting a therapy team in place, and also with his body, losing around 20 pounds this offseason. “For me, I didn’t play, so I gained weight towards the end of the season last year. To be able to lose fat and gain muscle but still lose weight is always a challenge, but I just got after it, put my head down and tried to put myself in the best spot I can be. That 225-230 is where I feel my best, and I’m ready to roll.”
Fun fact: in 1994, Terry Collins rookie year managing the Houston Astros, Collins was one of 17 (of 28) MLB Managers under the age of 50 (45), and one of 10 Managers 45 or younger. One of, if not the youngest Managerial classes ever in MLB. The youngest Manager was Buck Showalter (38), who is currently the third oldest manager in Baseball right now (will turn 67 in May)
That shows nothing but people aging with the passage of time.
Jim Riggleman is a baseball lifer..good asset.
Wendle plays a mean shortstop. He’s a gamer, has some pop, and is team-first.
I obv miss him on the Rays.
Regardless of his commitment to being in better shape, two shoulder surgeries back to back is probably a career ender. Just have to hope he’s an outlier on that.