Jose Fernandez set to provide hope in 2015 debut with Marlins
In less than a week, the Miami Marlins will have lost one of the game’s brightest young hitters and gained one of its brightest young pitchers. It could be worse, but I’m sure Marlins fans wish this was not the scenario currently facing their 33-46 club.
Giancarlo Stanton is expected to miss 4-6 weeks, but that’s nothing considering Jose Fernandez has been on the shelf since May of yesteryear after having had Tommy John surgery in early 2014.
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At only age 20, the Cuban born Fernandez dominated National League Rookie of the Year ballots in 2013 and looked to be on track for some serious votes in the NL Cy Young department in 2014 before tearing his ulnar collateral ligament in May. With Stanton in the lineup and Fernandez on the mound, the Marlins would have as strong a chance to win any ball game in the Majors on a given day. Now, the trick is getting them healthy and in uniform on the same day.
The 22-year-old flame thrower logged four rehab starts in June. While Fernandez’s ERA was a loftier than expected at 4.01, his K/9 of 11.4 was a positive sign and his fastball touched as high as 98 mph on the radar gun. He worked his way up to 90 pitches in his final rehab start at Double-A.
Marlins fans should temper expectations with Fernandez. His return will still provide the city with some excitement during what has been a dismal last couple of months for baseball in South Beach. The Marlins went a combined 22-34 in May and June, saw former manager Mike Redmond fired in late May and lost Stanton in the final week of June.
Fernandez will need to rediscover and tweak his mechanics some if he’s going to be successful in the long-term. The Mets’ Matt Harvey‘s first full season back from TJ surgery is a good example of how the procedure presents new learning curves for pitchers. While he is by no means struggling in 2015, a lot of his numbers (K/9, HR/9 and FIP notably) have regressed some since his torrid start to the 2013 season.
What the Marlins and their fans do want to see from Fernandez is no hiccups in terms of his health from here on out to October. Him rediscovering the game will be a gradual process, but the more progress he can make in what remains of 2015, the more he will set himself up for greater success in 2016.
This week is a big one for notable pitchers returning from forearm injuries. In Fernandez’s first start Thursday versus the San Francisco Giants, he will face Matt Cain — a three-time All-Star — who has not pitched since July of 2014 due to ongoing issues with bone chips in his pitching elbow.
Over in the American League, Matt Moore of the Tampa Bay Rays will pitch against the Cleveland Indians on the same day as Fernandez and Cain’s 2015 debuts. Moore was an All-Star in 2013, but the southpaw made only two April starts least season before succumbing to Tommy John surgery.
Jose Fernandez already has two things working against him in what is to be his 2015 debut: 1) He has never faced the Giants’ lineup before, which are coming off hitting a healthy .263 as a team in June. 2) Opening pitch is set for 12:10 PM EST. Fernandez is 2-4 with a 3.17 ERA in 10 career day starts, versus 14-4 with a 1.96 ERA in 26 night games. Thankfully for the Fish, with Cain going for the Giants, he will also be busy trying to knock some rust off his pitching elbow in the matchup.