HOUSTON — The Miami Marlins placed All-Star right-hander Max Meyer on the 15-day injured list with a neck strain, retroactive to Sunday, and recalled righty Zach Brzykcy from Triple-A Jacksonville as the club dropped its seventh straight game, an 8-5 loss to the Astros at Daikin Park.
The move marks the fifth consecutive season the 27-year-old Meyer has missed time due to injury. Manager Clayton McCullough said Meyer first felt the issue during his July 7 start against the Mariners. The Marlins skipped his next scheduled start on July 12, and he did not pitch in the All-Star Game.
“He felt a little sensation in the neck area in that outing [versus Seattle],” McCullough said. “Went with the extra time, and he felt much better with that time down. He was able to get through his throwing and the bullpens, and we all felt — he did, we did — that he was in a good place to make that start after the break.”
Meyer traveled to Los Angeles to see Dr. Robert Watkins IV after the sensation returned during his start against the Brewers in Milwaukee, where he allowed two runs in a season-low three innings while walking three. “I grinded through every single inning it felt like, put the ‘pen in a tough spot, especially coming off a break like this,” Meyer said after that outing. “Obviously, I wanted to go deeper. Pen’s got to pick up a lot of slack if I’m only going three innings and there’s a one-run game. So, it was tough. Obviously, not my best one. Clean up the walks and then get back on it.”
Meyer had already surpassed his single-season career highs for innings and starts at the Major League level. Until his Milwaukee outing, he had never gone longer than six days without taking the mound in a big league game. He posted a 4.91 ERA in eight starts on six days of rest compared to 3.04 on the regular four days’ rest and 4.61 with five. His injury history includes a right UCL tear during his second Major League start in 2022 that required Tommy John surgery, costing him all of 2023, followed by right shoulder bursitis in September 2024 and season-ending left hip labral repair surgery last June.
“Certainly a level of concern that he is going to go on the IL and have to be down for at least a couple of weeks, but I think right now, just more wanting to get a fuller picture of what’s going on and what is leading to this, potentially, so that we can get him back,” McCullough said. “Until we get further information of what that testing was and what a timetable looks like, we will remain optimistic that we can get Max back.”
Without Meyer, the Marlins will depend on Sandy Alcantara and Eury Pérez to stay in contention during a season-high seven-game losing streak. Meyer’s rotation spot comes up Friday and could be filled by Ryan Gusto, who has six starts this season and 23 in his career. Braxton Garrett is at Jacksonville but is 0-1 with a 14.54 ERA in two starts for Miami this season and 16-20 with a 4.16 ERA in 65 career starts. “I think we are going to see how these next three days go here,” McCullough said. “We had Brzykcy come up to give us another arm in the bullpen here. We will just reassess and decide what we think we want to do, what’s best when that spot comes up.”