The Marlins placed All-Star right-hander Max Meyer on the 15-day injured list with a neck strain on Monday, retroactive to Sunday, and recalled righty Zach Brzykcy from Triple-A Jacksonville.
Meyer appeared off in Saturday’s start against the Brewers in Milwaukee, allowing two runs in a season-low three innings while walking three. The 27-year-old Meyer has already surpassed his single-season career highs for innings and starts at the Major League level, and was taking the mound after a career-long 10 days between starts.
“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.”
Until Saturday, Meyer had never gone longer than six days without taking the mound in a big league game. He had posted a 4.91 ERA in eight starts on six days of rest compared to 3.04 on the regular four days’ rest and 4.61 with five.
“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.
Without Meyer, the Marlins, who have dropped a season-high six in a row, will depend upon Sandy Alcantara and Eury Pérez to stay in contention … while being judicious with both Meyer and Pérez’s workloads because of their injury histories.
