MIAMI -- The Marlins placed right-hander Max Meyer on the 15-day injured list with a left hip impingement and recalled reliever George Soriano from Triple-A Jacksonville on Tuesday afternoon.
Meyer allowed five runs (four earned) on 10 hits with five strikeouts and one walk over five innings in Monday's 6-4 loss to the Rockies at loanDepot park.
It was the latest rough outing for Meyer, who has posted a 7.01 ERA (27 ER in 34 2/3 IP) over his last seven starts dating back to April 27. Prior to this stretch, he had compiled a 2.10 ERA (7 ER in 30 IP) over his first five starts, with four consecutive quality starts.
“He's been feeling it for a few starts, nothing that felt like really limiting or hindering him,” manager Clayton McCullough said. “I think last night was the first time that he felt like in the outing it was starting to really inhibit his ability to finish and make pitches, which, you're looking back and kind of can see that [led] to a lot of pitches staying arm side, and maybe just not the finish on there.
“Felt best [that] it needs a chance to just calm down and try to knock out some of that inflammation there. And then [we can] just get Max back when this has had a proper amount of time to heal, and he can go out there in a spot where he's not having to think about pitching around an ailment.”
Some of Meyer’s postgame comments might’ve foreshadowed Tuesday's diagnosis.
“Just not getting through the baseball fully, I wasn't really getting into my legs, but, yeah, they were just getting left up,” Meyer had said. “Sinker didn't have really much depth. Changeup was a pretty good pitch throughout. But the sweeper lost a little bit of depth there, too.
“Just finishing every pitch. The ones that I get hit are kind of sloppy pitches. If I'm throwing well, just exploding through the mound, I get all my bite on my pitches, and I'm able to go deep into games and keep them off balance throughout the whole game. But when I don't have the finish on two, three of my pitches, it makes it tough.”
McCullough was unable to provide a timeline for Meyer’s recovery, though Cubs reliever Porter Hodge received a similar diagnosis while rehabbing a different injury. On Saturday, Chicago manager Craig Counsell revealed his hope that Hodge could advance to mound workouts sometime next week.
If the rotation remains in line, here are Miami’s probables:
Wednesday in Miami: Right-hander Cal Quantrill
Thursday: Off-day
Friday in Tampa: Righty Edward Cabrera
Saturday in Tampa: Left-hander Ryan Weathers
Sunday in Tampa: Righty Sandy Alcantara
The Marlins don’t need a fifth starter until Monday, when they begin their second leg of a three-city road trip in Pittsburgh. Meyer’s injury opens up a rotation spot for Miami, which had a difficult decision coming up with the return of righty Eury Pérez from Tommy John surgery.
Pérez, who threw 82 pitches and struck out four across 4 1/3 innings in his final rehab start with Triple-A Jacksonville on Tuesday, could slot into Monday’s series opener at PNC Park.
“We're going to get Eury inserted back in the rotation on this road trip,” McCullough said. “We expect everything today to go well for him and come out of it healthy and throw well, and then we'll get on the road trip and [determine] how many days we want to give before his next outing. But [we] anticipate that Eury joins us at some point on that road trip and gets inserted into the rotation.”
Soriano, meanwhile, opened the season in Miami’s Opening Day bullpen but was optioned to Triple-A Jacksonville after struggling in his first 11 appearances (8.35 ERA). With the Jumbo Shrimp, he had a 2.13 ERA, with four or more outs recorded in five of seven outings.
“Sori was throwing the ball really well in Triple-A,” McCullough said. “... Sori will be able to come in, and if we need some length out of Sori, two to three innings, I think he provides that type of coverage as well as if we need him in a shorter burst. Sori was throwing the ball well. Sori's stuff is really good. Him going down and getting a consistent run of appearances and pounding the strike zone, leaning on what his strengths are and [he] comes back up here in a good, confident spot to help us as needed.”