Marlins to monitor top prospect Sixto Sanchez as he nears season high in innings
Sixto Sanchez did it again.
The Miami Marlins’ top prospect and the No. 21 overall prospect in baseball according to MLBPipeline threw seven shutout innings for the Double A Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp on Tuesday night in what might be his best all-around performance since joining the Marlins in February as part of the J.T. Realmuto trade. Sanchez, the 20-year-old flamethrowing righty, struck out nine, gave up just two hits, did not walk a batter and needed just 76 pitches to get through seven innings.
Sanchez has been on an almost steady upward trend during the past five weeks. He has held opponents to two earned runs or fewer while throwing at least six innings in six of his seven starts during that span.
Sanchez, who is on an unspecified pitch limit this season, has held opponents to a .239 batting average and has struck out 78 batters against just 14 walks over 76 innings of work in 13 starts for Jacksonville. He threw 11 innings over two warmup starts with Class A Advanced Jupiter before being promoted to Double A.
“Sixto, he’s got a really good feel for pitching,” Jumbo Shrimp pitching coach Bruce Walton recently told the Miami Herald. “He’s really intelligent. He understands the game really well. He understands that executing pitches is really important.”
Sanchez relies on a three-pitch mix, highlighted by his electric fastball that reaches 100-plus mph and comfortably rests in the high 90s. He couples that with a changeup and a slider that he is able to throw for strikes.
“He’s more of a pitcher overall. He just so happens to have a 100-mph fastball, but he can pitch on the edges all day long,” Jumbo Shrimp manager Kevin Randel said. “Changeup. Slider. Throws them all for strikes. Keeps guys off balance. He can work back and forth, east and west. I think the next development for him is north and south, really. We’re just trying to teach him along the way when to use the up and when to pitch in, when to pitch down, when to use the changeup. It’s good development.”
Development is the key word. Again, Sanchez is just 20 years old and has already thrown 87 innings this season. He threw a career-high 95 innings in 2017 before being shut down after 46 2/3 innings last season with right elbow inflammation.
The Marlins plan to be cautious with their top prospect to limit the chances of injuries resurfacing.
“We haven’t talked specifically about doing anything other than letting him take the ball every five days,” Marlins president of baseball operations Michael Hill said. “He’s already approaching career innings for him. It’s just a matter of getting him into that routine and taking the ball every five days, and going out there and competing.”
The biggest adjustment for Sanchez on the field was adjusting his delivery. A couple small tweaks have allowed him to better pound the strike zone while not sacrificing his velocity.
“Command is what’s going to pay off when you start moving up, so he needs to learn to command the baseball now,” Walton said. “When Sixto stays in his delivery, he throws just as hard but with less effort and better command.”
“You’re seeing that growth,” Hill added. “It’s a special arm. You keep him healthy and keep doing it.”
Sanchez is the headliner of a Double A rotation that features three of the Marlins’ top-10 prospects. Edward Cabrera (No. 8) and Jorge Guzman (No. 10) are the others. Eleven of the Marlins’ top 22 prospects are starting pitchers.
“As an organization, we’re in a really good spot with these young kids,” Randel said. “These guys are power arms.”
This story was originally published July 24, 2019 at 12:14 PM.
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