Miami Marlins starting pitcher out until the Summer?!

It seemed that good news were on the way for a certain Miami Marlins starting pitcher. Unfortunately the news are now significantly worse. Who am I talking about? Of course I'm talking about none other than Sixto Sánchez. Will this affect Bruce Sherman's hope that The Fish can make the playoffs? The answer is probably not but it's obviously very sad to hear that there's yet another setback for the young former top prospect.

Sixto Sánchez is seemingly having yet another setback.

If there's anything that can make us feel even worse about trading J.T. Realmuto (besides the fact that the Miami Marlins keep having issues at catcher), is that the big return is yet to give the team enough back. Sixto Sánchez has only started 7 games and pitched 39.0 innings. He had a 3.46 ERA/3.50 FIP with 7.6 K/9 and 2.5 BB/9. That was back in 2020. 2020. At this point he last pitched three years ago.

I feel really bad for Sixto, he's a talented young player and I can't imagine how frustrating it is for him to deal with this. As he keeps saying he just wants to pitch, bad luck and setbacks keeps holding him back. Supposedly he didn't have a setback this time, as much as the team wants to be as careful as possible with him. Unfortunately it looks worse to me, it seemed that he would be ready by Spring Training, now he's out until the Summer.

Why did the timeline suddenly change? It didn't change by just a week, it changed by 3-4 months. That's a pretty big deal. The earlier reports claimed that he'd pitch in Spring Training and then naturally be available for the Opening Day roster (if he would make the team as otherwise he would start the season in AAA). Now he needs more rest and time to build up arm strength. Miami Marlins pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr. said that Sixto will only pitch as a starting pitcher, so moving him to the bullpen and protect his health is not an option.

At this point I gave up on expecting to get much from Sixto Sánchez. It sucks to say as at the end of the day we're talking about a human being, who just wants to do his job and can't because of injuries. As a Miami Marlins fan it can't be anything but sad and frustrating as Realmuto continues to be the best catcher in the game for The Fish's division rivals.