Skip Schumaker: When It Comes To Rotation, 'Everyone's On The Table'
The Miami Marlins officially have a rotation problem.
Despite recent good news of Braxton Garrett and Edward Cabrera playing catch and preparing to throw bullpens, the late-April timeline for those two to return plus the looming cloud of Eury Pérez going to visit a specialist for elbow soreness has the Marlins scrambling to find starting pitching for Opening Day.
Said manager Skip Schumaker when talking to the media in Jupiter, "everyone's on the table" when trying to configure the starting five for Opening Day.
Because despite Garrett and Cabrera playing catch, they've not yet faced live hitters and aren't going to be ready for Opening Day under even the most optimistic of scenarios. Both starters and Pérez all project to start the season on the Injured List, although the first two should tentatively be able to return in mid-to-late April.
Here's what we do know as to starters, and who might be an option for the final spot in the pen:
SP1: Jesús Luzardo, who is throwing to minor leaguers today in Jupiter in lieu of making the road trip to Port St. Lucie, is still on track for the regular season. No concerns here.
SP2: A.J. Puk, who was a reliever last season, is on track as of now to pitch in game two. This isn't necessarily a permanent designation - if Garrett, Cabrera, and Pèrez were all available, Puk would be your #5, but it is what it is at this point.
Puk's workload will be something to watch - converting to relief in the minors for the 2019 season, his combined season-high in innings is 62, coming with the Athletics in 2022. While he's been working on stretching out and conditioning, pitching more than 110 innings in 2024 isn't advisable.
SP3: Ryan Weathers is another reliever converting to starting, albeit it with a track record of historically serving as a starter. Initially projected for the Miami bullpen this season, Weathers has made 31 of his 46 MLB appearances in a starting capacity, including 12 of last season's 15 divided between San Diego and Miami. Pitching 137.1 combined innings between the majors and minors last season, he's probably good for 160 to 180 innings depending on how his offseason conditioning and buildup went, with the limiting factor towards his starts this season being performance rather than innings.
SP4: Trevor Rogers is trying to return to the majors after multiple injuries (bicep, lat) held him to just 18 major league innings last season. Miami's been slow to ramp him up this spring, but he appears to be responding well, with ten strikeouts to only two walks in his 8.2 innings of Grapefruit League action.
SP5: Good question. This is where the new uncertainty lies, due to the injury to Pérez bumping everyone up a spot. There are multiple options, including recently optioned Max Meyer (Tommy John), and as Schumaker said, "everyone's on the table."
Here's where each of the options for that fifth spot are:
AAA Jacksonville: Max Meyer
Major league camp (40-man): Bryan Hoeing, George Soriano
Major league camp (Non-roster invitee): Yonny Chirinos, Devin Smeltzer
As the Marlins 40-man roster is full, a transaction would be required to pick up either Chirinos or Smeltzer. But this also wouldn't need to happen until after the team gets more information about Pérez's elbow; depending on the severity, a 60-day stint might be in order and that would clear space for one of these two.
