Why Mattingly anticipates Marlins starting pitchers could have ‘restrictions’ in 2021
The Miami Marlins’ biggest strength could have some limitations next season.
Miami’s success during last season’s unexpected playoff run, and one of the priorities of its rebuild over the past three years, centers on its young-yet-talented starting pitching rotation.
But the Marlins might have to get creative and be a little cautious with the group in 2021 as MLB prepares to go back to a full, 162-game regular season after the coronavirus pandemic sliced the 2020 season down to 60 games.
That means pitchers could be slated to make two or three times as many starts as they did last year, an exponential increase in workload that could result in trouble if not prepared for properly.
“It’s definitely a concern, not only of mine but the whole organization as we talk about our young staff,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said Thursday. “We’ve walked through some scenarios. Our analytics and our pitching guys are talking about what we think is a doable number of innings. You think there will be some restrictions on a lot of our guys on the number of innings. How do we manage that? Those are all part of discussions that are ongoing walking into the season.”
Sandy Alcantara, Pablo Lopez and Elieser Hernandez are the three most likely to be guaranteed spots in the rotation on Opening Day. Sixto Sanchez, the club’s top prospect who flashed dominance at times during his shortened first MLB season last year, is likely in there as well. The fifth spot, barring an offseason acquisition, is likely going to go to one of the team’s other top prospects: Trevor Rogers, Braxton Garrett, Nick Neidert or Edward Cabrera.
Of those eight, only Alcantara has pitched a full season without injury. The 25-year-old and 2020 Opening Day starter made all 32 of his scheduled starts in 2019, throwing 197 1/3 innings. However, his innings total dipped to 54 2/3 over nine starts (including two in the playoffs) during the abbreviated 2020 season and missed a handful of starts early after being one of 19 players who tested positive for COVID-19 after the opening weekend.
Lopez, who made 11 regular-season starts in 2020 plus started one game in the National League Division Series, led Miami pitchers with 62 1/3 innings pitched last season.
No other Marlins pitcher threw more than 47 innings in 2020.
“You always worry about injury,” Mattingly said. “Pumping from a low amount of innings to thinking about, you know, 190 or 200 [innings], is a big jump, especially for young guys that have never been through it.”
This and that
▪ While the Marlins and the rest of the National League teams wait for an official decision on if there will be a designated hitter in 2021, Mattingly said the organization will “keep talking through” how they plan to incorporate both Garrett Cooper and Jesus Aguilar into the lineup next season. Both are primarily first basemen, although Cooper can also play in the corner outfields.
Cooper and Aguilar both avoided arbitration this year by signing one-year deals. Cooper, a career .281 hitter with 46 of his 141 hits over the last two years — or just shy of one-third — going for extra bases (21 home runs, 24 doubles, one triple), will make $1.8 million next season. Aguilar, who hit .277 with 10 doubles, eight home runs and 34 RBI for the Marlins in 2020, will make $4.35 million in 2021.
“It’s a good problem to have,” Mattingly said, “because that’s two quality bats in our lineup. We’ll let those those things continue to play out but I’m happy that we got both of those guys signed and back because they were a key part of our offense last year.”
▪ Mattingly said the club’s plan for the bullpen is to “put the best collection of arms we can put together that gives us the best chance to get outs.” While he ideally would like to have a player he can identify as a regular closer, Mattingly noted that “in today’s game you want flexibility out there. Sometimes you’d say your best matchup may be in the eighth. Be willing to do that, maybe in the seventh. So you’d like to be flexible in that way, so I look at it like we’re gonna try to put our best collection of arms together, and then go from there.”
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