The Marlins have put Max Meyer on the 15-day injured list with a neck strain, a move made Monday and backdated to Sunday, while bringing up right-hander Zach Brzykcy from Triple-A Jacksonville.
Meyer’s latest start had already raised eyebrows. In Saturday’s outing against the Brewers in Milwaukee, the All-Star right-hander gave up two runs over a season-low three innings and issued three walks. It was a rough night for a pitcher who had been working under unusual conditions, taking the ball after a career-long 10-day gap between starts.
After that game, Meyer was blunt about how it felt to grind through the outing.
“I grinded through every single inning it felt like, put the 'pen in a tough spot, especially coming off a break like this,” Meyer said after Saturday's start. “Obviously, I wanted to go deeper.
‘Pen's got to pick up a lot of slack if I'm only going three innings and there's a one-run game. So, it was tough.
Obviously, not my best one. Clean up the walks and then get back on it.”
The workload has been a notable factor all along. Before Saturday, Meyer had never gone more than six days between big league appearances, and he has already moved past his previous single-season career highs in both innings and starts at the Major League level.
His numbers also reflected the difference in rest. Meyer had a 4.91 ERA in eight starts on six days of rest, compared with 3.04 on the standard four days’ rest and 4.61 on five days.
“We are in uncharted territory with this, but also, we don't have any concern as much as, we do the responsible thing is just to be aware and cognizant of we do have a young athlete that is and already has surpassed a number of career highs,” manager Clayton McCullough said.
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