Sanchez will be on an innings limit this season, Jordan McPherson of The Miami Herald reports. "We're gonna have to put an inning cap on his workload," Marlins pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr. said Tuesday. "We've sat down and we have a plan for that."
The right-hander had a delayed beginning to his spring training and may not be fully ramped up by Opening Day, but Miami does have the option of skipping Sanchez entirely through the first two turns of the rotation thanks to a couple early off days. That likely wouldn't be the end of the team's attempts to limit his workload, however, as the focus will be on having Sanchez available for starts in September, not April and May. The 22-year-old threw 47 innings in 2020 between the regular season and playoffs after tossing only 114 frames between High-A and Double-A in 2019, and the Marlins do have plenty of options to make spot starts in order to give Sanchez, and the rest of their young rotation, extra rest over the summer.