Miami Marlins starting pitcher to likely start the season on the IL

The Miami Marlins already announced the Opening Day starter. It's going to be Jesus Luzardo. It was never going to be Braxton Garrett. That said, we now have some disappointing news when it comes to the latter. Garrett has been in the conversation due to some alarming potential injury news so far. What happens now? Any more news on when Garrett will be able to pitch?

Braxton Garrett will not start the season on the Miami Marlins active roster.

There are both good news and bad news for the Miami Marlins and Braxton Garrett. The good news are that it appears that a major injury has been avoided. When it was first announced that he had shoulder soreness, it was easy to start assuming the worst. Was this a precursor to a serious injury? Did he tear something? Was he going to miss months? Was he going to miss the season? How would the rotation work without him?

It turns out that he might be fine. Manager Skip Schumaker said:

“He feels great now, but I think it’s dangerous when you’re trying to push a guy to make an Opening Day roster.”

What this means is that it appears that it was just soreness. It also means that he can be expected to pitch out of the rotation this season, and potentially build upon his great 2023 season. He produced a 3.66 ERA/3.68 FIP, with 8.8 K/9 and 1.6 BB/9 in 31 games and 159.2 innings pitched. Garrett went from a depth arm to a mid-rotation starter, with perhaps even upside for more!

The bad news is Braxton Garrett missed too much time in Spring Training to make the team on time. This means that he won't be on the active roster by Opening Day and might even start the seaosn on the IL. It doesn't look like it's going to be much of an issue however. He should be back within weeks of that and hopefully producing at the level that he did last year. Let's hope that this is all that there is and that he really is fine.