Pete Fairbanks started the ninth Monday night in Miami's 4-2 loss to the Red Sox, walked Mickey Gasper, stepped off the mound, and touched his arm as he talked with catcher Brian Navarreto and manager Clayton McCullough. One batter, and the outing was over. Nerve irritation and numbness in his throwing arm, and he was gone.
That's not surprising on its own; bodies break down. What's alarming is that this same thing had already happened to this exact pitcher, twice, and the second time the numbness spread further than before. "Both of them weren't good," Fairbanks said afterward. "This one I felt it more throughout the whole arm as opposed to just getting finger numbness." His description of how it arrives should worry anyone who penciled him into October plans: "Warming up you feel fine. You feel fine throughout the day and all of a sudden it just kind of spirals on itself."
That's not a pitcher you build a bullpen around in a stretch run, someone who can jog out to the mound feeling fine and be unavailable five pitches later.
Miami had the receipts. Fairbanks felt the same discomfort back on April 27 at Dodger Stadium, an outing that got cut short and landed him on the injured list on April 28 before he was reinstated on May 13. Roughly three weeks. And the history runs deeper than this season: with Tampa Bay in 2024 he went on the injured list with nerve-related issues, having dealt with finger numbness at times over previous years, a condition tied to Raynaud's syndrome. Add hip, forearm, lat and shoulder problems across recent seasons, and you're looking at a reliever whose injuries have held him to no more than 49 appearances in a season.
My take: signing a walk-year Fairbanks to a one-year deal was a defensible gamble on upside. Leaning on him as a load-bearing closer through a playoff chase, after a documented nerve issue had already resurfaced once this season, is the part that deserves scrutiny. When a pitcher's own words describe symptoms that ambush him without warning, the smart move is to plan for the failure, not hope it doesn't come back in the highest-leverage inning of the night.
The cost cuts two ways. For Miami, still in the mix as of this writing with the regular season not yet finished, it means the ninth inning is a question mark again at the worst possible time. For Fairbanks, 32 and headed for free agency this winter, a second nerve breakdown in a contract year is the kind of thing that gets flagged in every front office's medical review. He was pitching to reset his market. This complicates that.
And it lands in a week that's been brutal for Miami's pitching plans. Max Meyer has been shut down for the season, his throwing program halted with a neck strain. "He tried to get back going there, and he just wasn't able to get past the hump," McCullough said, adding that even a miracle finish wouldn't give Meyer time to build back up. Meyer, who last pitched July 18 in a three-inning start against the Brewers, finishes with a 2.68 ERA, a 1.14 WHIP and a 121:41 strikeout-to-walk mark over a career-high 111 innings. He's now missed time in each of the past five seasons.
The difference is Miami handled Meyer with obvious caution. Fairbanks is the one who kept getting the ball, right up until the arm said no again. Call that bad luck if you want. I'd call it a warning the Marlins already had in writing.
