The Marlins put their hard-throwing ace back on the mound just over a year after he underwent Tommy John surgery.
And although it initially looked like Jose Fernandez was back in elite form, he's now facing a different issue — discomfort in his right shoulder.
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Fernandez flew back to Miami Saturday to have the injury assessed by team physician Lee Kaplan, hoping to learn the full extent of it. But manager Dan Jennings thinks it's too early to speculate.
"I don't want to borrow trouble. Let's see what it is before we speculate on something and have it be nothing more than a little normal stiffness that a lot of guys have postgame," Jennings said via the Sun Sentinel.
Fernandez is 4-0 with a 2.30 ERA since his return to the rotation in July, but threw only 76 pitches on Friday.
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"I always want to be out there. But I think it was the right call by the manager," Fernandez said via the Sun Sentinel. "Two starts before this one have been long. I had that long inning, 38 pitches. So why risk it?
"I wanted to go back out, yeah. …. But sometimes you've got to be smarter."
Hopefully the injury is nothing major, but the Marlins may play it safe with their talented hurler and place him on the disabled list anyway. They have the worst record in baseball.