Yet another Miami Marlins mistake is on the way tonight

The off-season can be seen as a miss by the Miami Marlins at this point. The team didn't improve the bullpen enough, didn't improve the lineup enough and is now going through terrible pitching experiments. One of those had been letting A.J. Puk pitch out of the rotation, he's naturally injured now. The Fish are about to make another mistake tonight.

There is no good reason to have Sixto Sanchez start for the Miami Marlins tonight.

You likely already know the story. Sixto Sanchez was a top starting pitching prospect for the Philadelphia Phillies, who was traded to the Miami Marlins in the now infamous J.T. Realmuto trade. Sixto debuted for The Fish in the shortened 2020 season. He produced a 3.46 ERA/3.50 FIP, with 7.6 K/9 and 2.5 BB/9 in 7 game and 39.0 innings pitched. It was an impressive debut, but he couldn't stay healthy after that until this season.

Returning to the Major Leagues as a relief pitcher this season, and currently has a disappointing 6.14 ERA/5.75 FIP, with 3.7 K/9 and 3.7 BB/9, in 7 games and 7.1 innings pitched. It's not surprising to immediately wonder how he can possibly be expected to go longer than an inning...and not risk a serious injury right away.

If Sixto Sanchez is supposed to just be an "opener" who pitches an inning, I don't have an issue with this. If he's actually supposed to pitch multiple innings...I don't know where to begin. The fact that his start is going to be against the Atlanta Braves is just mindboggling. That's putting him in a situation where he is very unlikely to succeed.

In 2020, Sixto's fastball was at 98.8 mph, but this season he's at 94.4. It's clear that he's not the pitcher that he was back then. I find it hard to believe that he's ever going to get back to his 2020 form. I also don't see why even sending him out as a starter makes any sense. He hasn't been stretched out during Spring Training and his future seems to lie solely in the bullpen at this point.