Meyer learning valuable lessons as workload increases

MIAMI -- In the season’s final month, Marlins right-hander Max Meyer may have learned his most valuable lesson yet.

“I didn't realize how long a Major League season actually is after missing all last year and going home, I think, like middle of August [2022], too,” Meyer said. “It's crazy how long it is, but that's when you’ve got to [man] up and keep throwing.”

By going 5 2/3 frames in the Marlins’ 6-2 loss to the Nationals on Tuesday night at loanDepot park, Meyer set a single-season career high for innings (115) and starts (26) between the Minors and Majors.

While those numbers aren't a lot for the average starter, Meyer went 19 months between MLB outings due to Tommy John surgery in August 2022. Prior to the procedure, the most innings he had thrown was 111 and the most starts he had made were 22 between Double-A and Triple-A during his first professional season … three years ago in 2021.

When Miami optioned Meyer to Triple-A Jacksonville on April 15 of this year, the organization monitored his workload. He didn’t go deeper than 4 2/3 frames until July 9, when he went six innings in his 13th start with the Jumbo Shrimp.

“I feel all right,” Meyer said. “I know everybody's going through some stuff right now. It's really hard to make it [through a] full season. Just keep sticking with my weight training program and my arm care, and [I] should be good.”

Added manager Skip Schumaker: “We talk to all of our pitchers to make sure that they feel OK. We'll talk to Max after the outing tomorrow and see how he feels. He missed a lot of time. But we also monitored his innings down there to make sure he could finish strong. There's a method behind the madness, right? … It's a lot of innings for him, big picture, after Tommy John. In the 130s I would think was probably the goal. But we'll see how he feels.”

The home run bug once again bit Meyer, who gave up five runs, including two long balls, on nine hits and one walk with five strikeouts in his eighth start since being recalled at the end of July.

After Jacob Young’s softly hit RBI single in the third, Meyer surrendered a three-run homer to Joey Gallo in a 29-pitch fourth. Andrés Chaparro led off the frame with a double and James Wood walked before Gallo ambushed Meyer's middle-middle 93.5 mph four-seamer that was meant to be higher up.

Later, the 25-year-old Meyer was two strikes away from completing six innings, but Keibert Ruiz connected with a slider at the bottom of the zone for a solo shot to chase him. In hindsight, Meyer wondered whether he should have backdoored the pitch or gone with a four-seamer or a changeup.

Since rejoining Miami on July 27, Meyer has allowed an MLB-high 12 homers in 40 innings. His 2.70 HR/9 rate is second among 99 pitchers with 30-plus frames during this span.

Here is a homer breakdown by pitch:

• 6 on his four-seamer
• 5 on his slider
• 1 on his changeup

“Just leaking them a little bit, obviously,” Meyer said of his pitch location. “Going back to Spring Training, I felt really good getting on top of all my pitches, and I could afford to miss a little bit on the location because the movement's there and the velocity’s there. But now I’ve kind of got to make sure I'm putting them in the right spot with what I have right now.”

While Meyer’s changeup usage had gone up in nearly every start, he turned to it less (14.9 percent) while going to his slider (45.7 percent) and four-seamer (35.1 percent) more on Tuesday. It marked the first time the slider was his most-used pitch since Aug. 6 -- five starts ago.

Here is a breakdown of how hitters have fared vs. each of his pitches since July 27:

• Four-seamer: .377/.429/.783 (26-for-69, 7 BB, sac fly)
• Slider: .268/.307/.493 (19-for-71, 4 BB)
• Changeup: .250/.400/.417 (6-for-24, 5 BB, HBP)
• Sinker: .000/1.000/.000 (0-for-0, HBP)

“It's tough because at this level, you want to win, and if he wasn't feeling good about the [changeup], then maybe he was going away from it because he didn't like it,” Schumaker said. “... Maybe he just didn't feel comfortable throwing it today and felt really good about the other pitches and didn't want to get beat by a pitch that he didn't feel good about. … He has good stuff. I just think that that pitch is going to really help him with a lineup with six lefties to get through it, especially three times through.”