Marlins’ Sanchez, out since 2020, still working toward his return

JUPITER

Sixto Sanchez so desperately wants to get back to his former self.

The pitcher with the tantalizing talent that not too long ago had him as one of the top prospects in all of baseball. The pitcher with the promising potential that had the Miami Marlins target him as the centerpiece of a trade in the early going of their rebuild that still hasn’t produced results. The pitcher who provided a glimpse of that raw talent before his career came to a screeching halt as an assortment of shoulder injuries sidelined him for more than two years.

Prior to spring training, Sanchez admitted that “frustration was really high” the past two seasons and he struggled at times to stay optimistic about a return.

But the 24-year-old who still oozes talent is slowly but steadily working toward a long-awaited return. He dropped close to 45 pounds this offseason and has not experienced any setbacks three weeks into spring training.

That said, Sanchez’s process is a marathon, not a sprint, and the Marlins aren’t going to rush him back after all that has transpired with him over the past two-plus years.

“Man, we’ve all talked about him for so long,” pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr. told reporters at the start of camp. “I know not only the general public, but you guys and us, too, are waiting to get him back and show us signs that he can pitch again.

“The plan is to bring him back as a starter still and get some volume. We’ve got to get him back to face hitters — we still haven’t done that. We’re further along than we were last year and there’s still hope. We all think he’s going to pitch this year.”

It’s worth noting that the right-hander is still not at 100 percent. His early bullpens are still more about finding comfort in his release and making sure his mechanics don’t cause any hiccups as he gets back to trying to throw on a normal routine. He threw 15 pitches — all fastballs — in his first bullpen of camp Monday. It was a moment, he said, he was “desperate” for after throwing a handful of bullpens before arriving in Jupiter only to be limited to playing catch the first couple weeks of spring training.

Sanchez returned to the mound Thursday and threw another 20 pitches, mixing in his changeup as well.

“I felt stronger than the first bullpen,” Sanchez said. “I’m feeling more and more strong every time and the release of the ball was good.”

It’s unclear when Sanchez will progress to facing live hitters. He will likely throw at least a couple more bullpens next week to continue mixing in the rest of the pitches to make sure he is fully comfortable before ramping up his activity. He’s working on releasing the ball later in his delivery so that his arm is in front of his body when the ball comes out of his hand.

“It’s a slow process,” manager Skip Schumaker said, “especially for him more than me. It’s just going to be a normal kind of routine: a bullpen every few days and increasing the velocity behind each pitch, working in his secondary pitches and then seeing how he feels the next day.”

And as much as there will be talk about his physical progression, the club is also prioritizing Sanchez’s mental approach.

“There’s probably some mental block in there, too,” Schumaker said. “Like, ‘Can I do this in a game? Can I work through some stuff?’ It’s been a few years since he’s gotten after it really feeling 100 percent. He just wants to feel good.”

The goal of all of this is to get him to the mound in a game that counts — something he hasn’t done since his National League Division Series start against the Atlanta Braves on Oct. 8, 2020. Sanchez was the No. 22 prospect in all of baseball at that point, according to MLB Pipeline.

After pitching in all of spring training in 2021, Sanchez experienced “slight discomfort” in his throwing shoulder that