Will a Former Top Marlins Prospect Finally Return to the Major Leagues in 2024?
The Miami Marlins are hoping to turn the clock back to 2021.
Because they have a pitcher who looked to be the front-runner for Rookie of the Year entering that season before injuries derailed things.
Sixto Sanchez, the team's former top prospect who impressed down the stretch in 2020, is looking to pitch major league innings in 2024 for the first time in three seasons.
Sanchez went 3-2 with a 3.46 ERA in seven starts in the shortened 2020 season, finishing seventh in the NL Rookie of the Year race. He then turned it up a notch in the postseason, throwing five scoreless innings in the NL Wild Card clincher against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field.
But that was the last time we'd see him, for three full seasons.
A shoulder capsule tear in early 2021 and bursectomy surgery on the same shoulder in October 2022 kept him out of any organized games for two full seasons, with Sanchez finally getting into a minor league contest in late September of last year. Sanchez threw one single inning for Double-A Pensacola, striking out two, but wasn't able to take the mound again and was shut down due to lingering soreness.
But Sanchez returned to organized action last week, making his Grapefruit League debut with a scoreless inning against the Mets. Sanchez threw fourteen pitches, striking out one, and saw his fastball velo sitting around 95 by the end of the inning.
Sanchez, who spoke to the media through an interpreter, was relieved after that first outing. “Everything went well, thank goodness. My teammates, they were telling me, ‘Let's go, let's do this. You can do this.’”
And so now, the question is: What comes next?
Sanchez is out of options, so he must make the major league roster or be exposed to waivers. And given the talent, it's likely some other organization would claim him.
Does he have time to build back up as a starter? That's an open question at this point, and it's possible that a relief role would allow him the security of a roster spot and he could be transitioned into the rotation once the season starts.
Marlins manager Sklip Schumaker, who wasn't here in 2020 when Sanchez was on the Major League mound, admitted he wasn't sure what the long-term plan was: “I don't know,” Schumaker told the media after Sixto's outing. “We're going to see how he feels tomorrow, and that's kind of the plan, to see how he recovers first, and then we'll figure it out later.”
Managing Editor for Blackerby Media, covering the Atlanta Braves and Miami Marlins Also: Senior Baseball Writer for Auburn Daily, member of both the National College Baseball Writers Association and Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (where he won the 2023 Prospects, Minors, & College Writer of the Year award)