Sixto Sanchez’s long road back to MLB is complete. He’s on the Marlins’ Opening Day roster

When spring training began, Miami Marlins manager Skip Schumaker was blunt about where things stood with right-handed Sixto Sanchez entering camp.

“He’s gonna have to progress. That’s the reality,” Schumaker said on Feb. 15. “He’s in big league camp. He has a chance just like anybody else, but he’s going to have to show something just like the rest of the guys that he’s ready to be a part of this thing.”

Mission accomplished.

On Friday, just over five weeks after that initial comment, Schumaker announced that Sanchez will be on the Marlins’ Opening Day roster when the season begins Thursday against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

After three years of setbacks and surgeries, Sixto Sanchez is back in the big leagues.

“A bunch of us were in the room,” Schumaker said, “and let him know how excited we are for him.”

How Sixto Sanchez went from afterthought to ‘opening eyes’ and on verge of cracking Marlins’ roster

It’s the latest stepping stone in a long journey for Sanchez, whose career has been decimated by shoulder injuries and setbacks (including two surgeries) over the past three seasons after making his MLB debut in 2020.

There was so much uncertainty with how Sanchez would perform this spring, and it was really his final chance to show he could give the Marlins anything since he is out of minor-league options.

He turned into one of the most positive surprises of camp.

Through five spring training appearances, Sanchez has thrown seven shutout innings, giving up just one hit and three walks while striking out four. He has flashed the top-end velocity with his fastball at times — almost hitting 99 mph in one outing but generally sitting around 95 mph — and his changeup and slider are both still extremely effective.

It’s ‘crunch time’ for Sixto Sanchez. Is there a path for him to salvage his Marlins tenure?

“I’ll be honest with you,” Schumaker said, “I didn’t think he was going to be throwing the way he’s throwing. Really impressed with how he’s throwing the baseball.”

Added Marlins president of baseball operations Peter Bendix: “He has been a very, very pleasant revelation. To see him get better every single time that he’s thrown the ball, dating back to bullpen sessions and his first live BP, and to see him — you can watch him gain confidence even from the first pitch of an outing to the last pitch of an outing — You can see that the the old Sixto is still in there. And I think he’s beginning to understand that he can really turn it loose and let the ball go and it’s not going to hurt his shoulder and it’s still going to be 97-98 [mph]. And to see that while he still has the slider and the changeup and the competitiveness and the command, there’s a lot of positives.”

Sanchez, who will be used as a reliever and can be used in both a multi-inning role and potentially in high-leverage situations down the road, has been working toward this opportunity all spring training. On the first day of camp, the same day Schumaker said Sanchez had a lot to prove, Sanchez declared that this was going to be his season.

After biding his time and being patient through a multi-year rehab process, Sanchez will finally get that chance.

“I’m very grateful for that chance and that opportunity in keeping me here and waiting for me to get back to the show and to the big-league level,” Sanchez said last week. “That just showed me that I’ve just gotta keep working and keep improving and show that I can come back and do my job.”