Marlins call up Jesus Sanchez as injuries continue to mount. He’ll play ‘quite a bit’

The smile hasn’t left Jesus Sanchez’s face.

“Never, never,” he said while flashing his pearly white grin.

It started when he got the call around midnight that he had been waiting to hear. It remained on the flight to St. Louis, when he stepped out of the dugout and onto the field at Busch Stadium, when he greeted his teammates and when he stepped into the batter’s box for pregame batting practice.

Sanchez’s second opportunity at the MLB level is here.

The Miami Marlins added outfielder Jesus Sanchez, the No. 5 prospect in the organization and No. 99 overall prospect in baseball according to MLB Pipeline, to their active roster ahead of Tuesday’s 2-1 walk-off loss to the St. Louis Cardinals. Paul Goldschmidt hit a game-winning home run off Yimi Garcia to lead off the bottom of the ninth, end the game and drop the Marlins to 29-38 on the season.

Sanchez started in left field and went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts while batting fifth in the lineup. He replaced veteran Corey Dickerson, who was placed on the 10-day injured list with a left foot contusion. The Marlins also called up outfielder Lewis Brinson and optioned Braxton Garrett to Triple A Jacksonville.

Marlins manager Don Mattingly said he hasn’t put together an exact plan yet for how Sanchez and Brinson (and, for that matter, Magneuris Sierra) will split reps in left field with Starling Marte in center field and Adam Duvall in right field.

What he did say, though, is that Sanchez should get ample playing time.

“You’ll see him out there quite a bit,” Mattingly said.

Mattingly also said he liked Sanchez’s at-bats on Tuesday even though there were no results to show for it.

Sanchez saw 20 pitches over his four at-bats and only swung at two pitches that were out of the strike zone. He put one of those in play in the first inning, a 103.5 mph groundball that ended the first inning.

Sanchez is back on the big-league roster for good reason: He has been downright dominant for Triple A Jacksonville. The 23-year-old entered Tuesday ranked second in the Triple A East division with a 1.043 OPS and tied for third with 28 RBI while also hitting nine home runs and scoring 19 runs.

“I didn’t change anything,” Sanchez told the Miami Herald from the field prior to Tuesday’s game. “It’s just the same thing I have all the time. What I really did was start believing in what God gives and believing in myself.”

It has set the stage for Sanchez to get his second chance to show he can compete in the big leagues after struggling in his first MLB stint last year.

Sanchez went just 1 for 25 with four walks and 11 strikeouts in his 10 games with the Marlins during the shortened 2020 season and also struggled early while playing winter ball in the Dominican Republic.

The lack of success hampered him mentally at the time.

“I wasn’t enjoying the game,” Sanchez said during spring training.

He’s enjoying it now. He had multi-hit outings in 11 of his 33 games played for the Jumbo Shrimp.

“I’m feeling great,” Sanchez said. “I’m here.”

Dickerson’s injury, meanwhile, leaves the Marlins without yet another veteran position player as injuries continue to take their toll on the team. Mattingly said pregame Tuesday that “even the best-case scenario’s not great” for Dickerson.

Miami was already without shortstop Miguel Rojas (left index finger dislocation), third baseman Brian Anderson (left shoulder subluxation) and first baseman/right fielder Garrett Cooper (lumbar strain), although Rojas could return as early as the Marlins’ series with the Chicago Cubs this weekend if his rehab assignment with Triple A Jacksonville goes well.

Infielder Jose Devers is also on the injured list with a right shoulder impingement, leaving Miami with just three healthy non-first baseman infielders on their 40-man roster in Jazz Chisholm Jr., Isan Diaz and Jon Berti.

If one of those three were to be removed from a game for whatever reason, Mattingly said Jesus Aguilar is the primary option to play third base, with the others rotating around to fill whatever position is vacated.

More game recap

Trevor Rogers held the Cardinals (34-33) to one run over six innings of work in a no-decision. The Marlins’ 23-year-old rookie left-handed pitcher held the Cardinals to three hits and one walk while striking out six.

The main blemish: A pickoff attempt that went awry in the sixth that ultimately set up the Cardinals’ game-tying run. Jose Rondon was on first base after recording a pinch-hit single with one out. Rondon went to steal second base as Rogers made a pickoff attempt, but the throw to Aguilar sailed wide, allowing Rondon to get to third. Goldschmidt drove Rondon home with a two-out, two-strike RBI single to tie the game.

Miami scored its lone run in the third on a Duvall RBI single that scored Marte and got Aguilar to third with no outs. Duvall reached second on the play on a bad throw to the cutoff man.

The Marlins couldn’t capitalize, as three consecutive groundball outs ended the inning and stranded the two runners.

“It seemed like that kind of killed our momentum really the rest of the game,” Mattingly said.

Edward Cabrera update

Right-handed pitcher Edward Cabrera, the No. 4 overall prospect in the Marlins’ organization and the No. 53 prospect in baseball according to MLB Pipeline, has been assigned to the Double A Pensacola Blue Wahoos after returning from a minor-league rehab assignment with the Class A Jupiter Hammerheads.

Cabrera threw six scoreless innings over two starts with Jupiter after being sidelined with right biceps nerve inflammation since before spring training started.

He is expected to make his next minor-league start on Friday.

The Double A rotation also includes top pitching prospects Max Meyer and Jake Eder.