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The Miami Marlins may have suffered more injuries to their pitching staff than some teams have to their entire team.
Sixto Sanchez was the latest Marlin to head to the IL and he joins six other Marlins starters there. While Braxton Garrett and Ryan Weathers are only on the 15-Day IL, the rest of them are on the 60-Day IL and are not likely to pitch again this season.
That leaves Trevor Rogers as the last man standing in the rotation as Miami has had to promote several arms from Triple-A and signed Yonny Chrinos in free agency to help fill out the rotation. But one guy we haven't seen pitch for Miami since April is their top prospect, Max Meyer. How much longer must fantasy managers wait to see Meyer back in the big leagues?
Max Meyer Prospect Update for Fantasy Baseball
The injury to Jesus Luzardo last week opened up yet another spot in the Miami rotation. Many thought Meyer might finally be joining the rotation, as his last start for Triple-A Jacksonville was on June 20. However, it appears that Miami is going to go with another rookie, Valente Bellozo, who will start for the Marlins on Wednesday in Kansas City.
Valente Bellozo is with the Major League team in Kansas City per his Instagram.#Marlins pic.twitter.com/aJsKb96e4W
— Kevin Barral (@kevin_barral) June 25, 2024
It's a frustrating situation for managers who have been stashing Meyer because he's obviously better than several of the arms in their current rotation. And Miami has made no indication that they have a plan or timeline in place for him.
The Marlins seem to be managing his innings as he has not been allowed to go more than four innings in any minor league start. And yes, he is attempting to come back from Tommy John surgery so they are being extra careful. But at what point do they bring him up and manage his innings from the big-league level?
Max Meyer Outlook for Fantasy Baseball
An optimist would point out that after one more start at Triple-A, Meyer could finally be ready to be activated and join the rotation next week. Miami is really running out of decent options and unless they want to sacrifice middling minor leaguers out there one after another, then at some point they'll want Meyer out there instead.
However, a more pessimistic view might be that Miami views this as a lost season and would rather let Meyer continue to work on his stuff at the Triple-A level and build up some confidence for next season.
Ironically enough, Meyer's big league numbers this season are better than his minor league numbers. There could be several explanations for that, but it's most likely that he's allowed to experiment with his pitches and location to different hitters in games that don't matter and that he stuck with his best stuff when he faced major league hitters earlier this season.
At this point, Meyer is a must-stash player in nearly all leagues - at least for a few more weeks until we see what Miami has in store for Meyer for the rest of the season.
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