MIAMI -- With right-hander Nathan Eovaldi flying out to Houston for the birth of his first child, the Miami Marlins placed him on the paternity list and recalled righty Sam Dyson from Triple-A New Orleans prior to Sunday's finale against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Dyson went 1-1 with a 2.66 ERA and one save in 20 1/3 innings for the Zephyrs. He missed some time when he and teammate Chris Hatcher got into a fight April 29 at a Nashville bar. Dyson's jaw was broken, and Hatcher received a five-game suspension.
The 26-year-old had surgery on Thursday, May 1, and was back working out the following Monday. He threw in the cage and played catch with a trainer for five days before rejoining the club to stretch and throw.
Since his return, he has tossed a pair of two-inning relief outings as well as two one-inning extended spring appearances.
As fate would have it, both relievers are with the big-league club.
"Everything's fine," Dyson said. "It was two months ago. Definitely past us. Looking to help the team win and do what we have to do. That's our main goal."
Dyson made his major-league debut with the Blue Jays in 2012, allowing three runs on four hits in 2/3 innings in two games.
Last year, he was a late-season call-up for the Marlins after being claimed off waivers that January. In five games (one start), he posted a 0-2 record and 9.00 ERA in 11 innings.
"Get your feet wet and get some experience and you just have to adjust your gameplan but figure out what you need to do to get better," Dyson said. "I bounced around -- starter, hurt my back -- back to starting, then up here relief role, starting, relief role. It's just trying to get in a groove of what you're doing, trying to fine-tune everything."
WHAT TO DO
A decision will be made either Sunday or Monday on whether to place Christian Yelich on the 15-day disabled list with a lower back strain.
Yelich, who felt stiffness during the first play of Friday's game and exited following his first at-bat, has not been available for the past two days.
"He feels better but still pretty stiff," manager Mike Redmond said. "Tried to give him as many days as we could, but we'll see. A lot of it was whether he would be able to do baseball activities (Monday) and right now it's not looking like it. We're holding out hope we could keep him off it."
The club would likely bring up Jake Marisnick, who missed out on the center-field job to Marcell Ozuna this spring. Marisnick is batting .264 with six homers and 27 RBI in 67 games for Triple-A New Orleans.
SALTY SET
Jarrod Saltalamacchia will begin a rehab stint with Single-A Jupiter on Monday.
Saltalamacchia has been on the seven-day concussion disabled list since June 1. Redmond said Saltalamacchia will only play a few innings and doesn't expect him to need too many games to return.
ALL-STAR UPDATE
Giancarlo Stanton remains in line to be a National League starting outfielder at next month's All-Star Game based on the latest voting results released Sunday night.
Stanton (1,659,430) dropped from second to third behind Los Angeles Dodgers' Yasiel Puig (1,942,701) and Pittsburgh Pirates' Andrew McCutchen (1,727,534).
The 24-year-old continues to lead the NL with 18 homers and 54 RBI.
WORTH NOTING
-- The plan still calls for Eovaldi to make his next start on Wednesday against the Chicago Cubs.
"If we could just plan these guys' babies on when we need a fresh arm we'll be in business," Redmond joked. "It does give us a fresh arm down there when we really need one. Our bullpen has pitched a lot of innings. More importantly we want him to go and enjoy the birth of his baby."
You can follow Christina De Nicola on Twitter @CDeNicola13 or email her at cdenicola13@gmail.com.
