To say that the Miami Marlins are struggling would be a gross understatement. With a 6-22 start, the team’s season could possibly be over. However, it isn’t their bad form that has caught the ire of fans, it is their treatment of Max Meyer. Their top prospect lit up the league during his starting games. But then in a surprising twist, the Marlins sent him back down to the minor leagues. That didn’t sit well with the fans who complained that the team was trying to elongate his contract to postpone his arbitration date.

But then that isn’t a new thing in baseball. Multiple teams try to limit their top prospect’s workload in order to increase their stay with the team. But the way the Marlins did it proved to be questionable. Now top insider Ken Rosenthal has used the example of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Paul Skenes to explain how the Marlins could’ve done things differently.

Ken Rosenthal shared that he had talked to the Miami Marlins’ GM Peter Bendix during his appearance on the Foul Territory Show. Rosenthal asked Bendix about the “message” that was sent after sending down Meyer after a great performance. To this, the GM replied that he’s “got to do what’s best for the pitcher.” This is where Rosenthal brought up the example of Paul Skenes. 

Rosenthal noted that Paul Skenes “certainly looks ready for the majors.” But then he noted that the “Pirates have some limit in mind for him for this year.” The reason for the limit? Risk of injury. He noted that the Pirates wouldn’t want Skenes to get injured so they’ll protect him. According to Rosenthal, the Marlins are doing something similar. Their season is almost over, so they don’t want to put more pressure on the arm of Meyer who is just returning from a Tommy John surgery.

But while all of this does make sense, optioning Max Meyer after a series of great performances does sound a little deflating. But then it is something that has been done since forever.

How the Miami Marlins sending down Max Meyer isn’t a disaster 

Teams have been sending down top prospects for a long time. Just this instance apart from Meyer, there’s the Baltimore Orioles’ Jackson Holliday who has been demoted to the Triple-A. This isn’t alarming (though in Holliday’s case, it happened because of his below-average performances).  As Rosenthal noted, the Marlins are trying to protect the arm of Meyer before he reinjures it due to overpitching.

At the same time, it does make some sense for the Marlins to preserve their highly talented prospect. Especially in a season where they’ve nothing to fight for. Rarely can teams climb from a 6-22 start to make their season meaningful. So the Marlins hope that delaying Meyer’s permanent move to the major league is beneficial in the long term. The team can create a prolonged period of success with their future ace. 

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Still, the fans are certainly not happy. The tremendous start of Max Meyer (2-0 with a 2.12 ERA) made fans believe that an All-Star season was coming for him. But now one wonders when will they get to see him again.