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Marlins go for prized pitching prospect Sixto Sanchez to their alternate / Triple-A site to start the season, Miami Herald’s Jordan McPherson reports (Twitter connections). They will open the year with a rotation of four people.
While the first reaction of many fans will be to assume that this is a service-driven decision, it is not in this case. Sanchez racked up 103 days of service in 2020, which means he only needs 69 days of service this season to reach a full year. The Marlins are expected to keep Sanchez in minors for at least 118 days in order to delay his free agency for another season at this point, and there is no plausible scenario where that happens – barring an unfortunate injury. and untimely while continuing to rise to the team’s alternate site.
In all likelihood, Sanchez will be in the big leagues in the opening weeks of the season. Sanchez was late to camp after being in Covid-19 protocols early on, and he didn’t make his Grapefruit League debut until March 15. Marlins don’t want to drop him straight into the big league rotation until he’s stretched out enough. In the meantime, they’ll be able to carry an extra reliever or bench player, and the first few days off will give them the luxury of jumping fifth in the rotation until mid-month (when Sanchez is presumably ready for his debut in 21).
Craig Mish of the Herald tweets that the Marlins are eyeing a goal of around 150-160 innings for Sanchez in what will be his first full season at the MLB level. The 22-year-old flamethrower made his debut last summer and threw 39 rounds of 3.46 ERA balls with a whopping 58% ground ball rate, 20.9% pull rate and a 7.0% duty cycle. Once he builds some more, Sanchez will enter the rotation behind Sand alcantara, Pablo Lopez, Elieser Hernandez and Trevor Rogers.
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