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Sixto Sanchez, P
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Scouting report
Even though Sixto's 2020 debut reinforced strong, previously-held scouting reports, we still don't know exactly how he'll look over a truly complete season of starter's innings, which is largely the case across baseball after a lost/shortened year. Recall that Miami brought him back gingerly in 2019 after he had an injury-riddled '18; he first dealt with neck/shoulder issues, then elbow, then neck/shoulder again. Shoulder issues once again popped up during 2021 spring training and have run into the start of the regular season. These issues are part of why I'm a little lower on Sixto on the overall top 100 than the public tends to expect. The other reason is because of his fastball's shape. Some of my previously-held concerns about the playability of Sánchez's fastball (it's really hard, but only generated an 8% swinging strike rate on its own against 2019 minor leaguers; the big league average on all pitches is 11%) were allayed by him developing a second type of heater. He now has a pretty well-defined four- and two-seam variants, and good arm-side command of the two-seamer. In aggregate, he still missed bats at a rate just below league average, but he also generated a ton of weak groundballs with his fastballs, so I still consider the pitch to be plus. His changeup, which had been one of the better ones in the minors for a while, will continue to be his primary out pitch. It has bat-missing, screwball action, so much that it dips beneath the barrel of right-handed hitters as well as away from lefties. Sánchez can also run it back over the glove-side corner of the plate for looking strikes. Though his slider has plus spin, the shape and quality of its movement are variable and location-dependent. Sánchez's command, especially for someone who throws as hard as he does and who converted to pitching later than most others, is pretty advanced, and if he ends up with plus command of three good pitches (one of them great), he'll likely make some All-Star teams, but he slides just a tad because of his injury history and because I don't think his fastball can dominate consistently even though it has elite velocity. (Alternate site, MLB)