Sixto Sánchez cut by Marlins after 6 seasons with organization

The Miami Marlins officially reinstated five players from the 60-day injured list on Monday: Sandy Alcantara, Braxton Garrett, Jesús Luzardo, Andrew Nardi and Eury Pérez. Right-hander Sixto Sánchez also ended the season on the 60-day IL, but the Marlins have deemed him unfit for a 40-man roster spot. As first reported by Fish On First's Isaac Azout, Sánchez passed through waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Jacksonville. He is now a free agent.

Right-handers Anthony Maldonado, John McMillon and Michael Petersen were also waived in corresponding moves to make room for the injured pitchers; Maldonado was claimed by the Athletics, McMillon by the Phillies and Petersen by the Blue Jays. So was left-hander Josh Simpson. He cleared waivers, but still has one year of club control remaining. Right-hander Luarbert Arias, who had been a pending minor league free agent, got selected to one of the vacant 40-man spots.

Sánchez spent six seasons in the Marlins organization after being acquired from the Philadelphia Phillies as the centerpiece of the February 2019 J.T. Realmuto trade. His tenure was uniquely frustrating.

Through the first two years, the deal seemed as though it could wind up as a win-win. Realmuto continued to be an excellent all-around catcher for his new club, while Sánchez reached the majors as a 22-year-old and played a critical role in snapping the Marlins' 17-year postseason drought. He then started and went five scoreless innings in Game 2 of the National League Wild Card Series, which Miami ultimately won to sweep the favored Chicago Cubs.

Sánchez showed triple-digit fastball velocity, a nasty changeup for putting batters away and good command of his pitches. With his rookie eligibility still intact entering 2021, he was widely ranked in the top tier of MLB pitching prospects.

Sánchez was supposed to be a lock for the 2021 Marlins Opening Day rotation, but his preseason prep fell behind schedule due to visa issues and a false positive COVID test. The Marlins assigned him to their alternate training site in Jacksonville to finish stretching out as a starter in intrasquad games. He suffered a right shoulder injury when pitching on March 31. After initial rehab efforts were unsuccessful, he underwent season-ending surgery on July 20 of that year.

The expectation was that we'd see Sixto resurface at some point in 2022, but he never even sniffed a rehab assignment. Seemingly every team-provided injury update that summer reiterated that he was throwing from a distance of 45 feet, stalled at an early stage of his throwing progression. After a lost year, he underwent a second procedure in October 2022, a right shoulder arthroscopic bursectomy.

Pudgy by baseball standards throughout his early 20s, Sánchez's physique was noticeably improved when he arrived to spring training in 2023. However, the quality of his stuff had deteriorated. It was another season filled with vague and discouraging reports. A Marlins team that was surprisingly in postseason contention desperately needed starting rotation depth at various points, but Sánchez wasn't ready to contribute. He finally made his return to official game action with Double-A Pensacola in September, pitching one uninspiring inning, then vanishing again.

Entering 2024, Sánchez had exhausted all of his minor league options and regained much of the bad weight he had previously carried. It looked like he was at the end of the line. To his credit, he earned his place on the Marlins pitching staff. A handful of spring training injuries worked in his favor, but he also legitimately performed well in Grapefruit League competition (9.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 8 K) and his fastball velocity gradually climbed, peaking at 98.8 mph.

Once the real games began, though, it became clear that Sánchez was a shell of his former self. He could not locate with the precision he previously had, his secondary pitches lacked late movement to induce swinging strikes and his fastball velo was highly erratic. He didn't record more than three strikeouts in any outing this season. The Marlins sidelined him from June onward due to right shoulder inflammation.

In 21 total MLB appearances (14 starts), Sánchez has posted a 4.70 ERA, 4.09 FIP and .276 BAA in 74 ⅔ innings pitched. He is still just 26 years old. Perhaps another team will be enticed enough by his youth and prospect pedigree to bring him to camp as a non-roster invitee.

Meanwhile in Philly, Realmuto leads MLB catchers by a wide margin with 23.2 fWAR accumulated since the trade. The Phillies have reached the postseason in three straight years and he has been their starting catcher in all 34 of those postseason games.

Miami's updated 40-man roster is at 38 as of Monday evening: