Sánchez, Phils cautiously optimistic after lefty exits with forearm soreness

NEW YORK -- Cristopher Sánchez cannot tell a lie.

He had not pitched well through two innings in Tuesday’s 5-1 loss to the Mets at Citi Field. Phillies pitching coach Caleb Cotham visited him on the mound twice, which was unusual. Sánchez’s velocity was down. He wasn’t sharp. So, after he threw 58 pitches in two innings, manager Rob Thomson met him in the area between the visitors’ dugout and clubhouse.

“How are you doing?” Thomson asked.

Typically, Sánchez would say, “Yeah, yeah, I’m good.”

Instead, he only nodded. Thomson knew something was wrong.

“Tell me what’s going on,” Thomson said.

“My arm’s just a little bit tight,” Sánchez said.

Thomson ended Sánchez’s night right there. The Phillies announced that Sánchez has “left forearm soreness.” Initial exams indicated no structural damage, but the club will know more in the next couple of days.

“He’s one of the best pitchers in the National League, so other people would have to pick it up,” Thomson said about possibly losing Sánchez. “But I’m not anticipating that yet.”

Sánchez is in line to pitch next Tuesday against the Nationals, but it would be surprising if he did. The forearm is connected to the elbow, after all.

“Right now, I feel normal,” Sánchez said via the team’s interpreter. “I think it’s not going to be a thing I have to worry about.”

But he acknowledged he had never experienced soreness like this before. Sánchez did not look like himself before the game, warming up in the bullpen. Cotham told Thomson afterward that Sánchez was “just a little off.” Sánchez allowed one run in a 31-pitch first inning. He allowed another run in a 27-pitch second inning. His fastball averaged 94.7 mph, down 1.2 mph from his season average. It bottomed out at 92 mph in the second inning.

Tuesday was the first time a Phillies starter got a mound visit in both the first and second inning and stayed in the game since Ben Lively on June 30, 2017.

So then, why is Sánchez confident he will be OK?

“We did some movement exercises in the training room,” he said. “The doc checked me out, and that’s why I feel positive that we won’t have to be worried about this.”

Thomson said if it isn’t serious, they could adjust the rotation because of off-days on Thursday and again on Monday, giving Sánchez more time to recover. The Phillies don't need a fifth starter until May 3 against the Diamondbacks.

Either way, they are fortunate that left-hander Ranger Suárez is close to rejoining the rotation. He opened the season on the 15-day injured list because of a lower back injury. He threw five scoreless innings on Tuesday in a rehab start with Triple-A Lehigh Valley.

Thomson said Suárez is scheduled to make a fourth rehab start on Sunday with the IronPigs.

“That’s not going to change,” Thomson said of Suárez's next rehab outing.

It goes without saying, but recovery times for elbow/forearm injuries vary based on the severity and the individual. Right-hander Zack Wheeler spent almost a month on the injured list late in 2022 because of tendinitis in his right elbow. He returned and pitched well in the postseason.

Suárez opened the 2023 season on the IL because of a strained left elbow. He missed the season’s first 39 games. Left-hander José Alvarado twice had inflammation in his left elbow in 2023. He first missed a month, then six weeks. Left-hander Jesús Luzardo missed 15 days with tightness in his left elbow last year. Right-hander Jordan Romano opened last season on the injured list with inflammation in the right elbow. He missed the first 18 games, then returned to the IL in June and did not pitch again.

Then, there are the serious elbow injuries that end a pitcher’s season.

The Phillies sounded confident on Tuesday that this isn’t that.

Regardless, they feel they are better equipped than most organizations at handling an injury like this.

“We’re about as comfortable as you can be, but you also know how that can change very quickly in this game,” Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said on April 13 in St. Louis. “You’re never overly comfortable, but I think we’re in the best spot we’ve been in since I’ve been here.

"We’ve got Ranger coming back. We’ve got [Andrew] Painter in the future. We’ve got three guys throwing in Triple-A in [Alan] Rangel, [Mick] Abel and [Seth] Johnson that have thrown well. We’ve got [Nabil] Crismatt and [Kyle] Tyler, too. We’ve got more depth than we’ve had, even at Double-A.”