JUPITER, Fla. -- The addition of Wei-Yin Chen gives the Marlins a durable veteran left-hander at the top of the rotation, but the most durable pitcher for Miami the past two seasons has been right-hander Tom Koehler, who is expected to slot in at No. 3 behind ace Jose Fernandez and Chen this season. Koehler has given the Marlins at least 187 innings each of the past two seasons. That's the kind of consistency new manager Don Mattingly is hoping to see again this season from the 6-foot-3 Koehler.
"Usually, a guy who's eating up innings is a guy who's keeping you in a game," Mattingly said Monday at Marlins camp. "You don't leave him out there just to eat up innings. You leave him out there because he's doing a good job and giving himself a chance to win and giving us a chance to win."
Koehler seems to buy into that assessment.
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"If you go out there and take the ball and throw a lot of innings, your numbers are going to be where you want them to be at the end of the year," Koehler said. "Because if they're not and you're not pitching well, you're not going to get those innings [and] they're going to find someone else to do the job."
Koehler, an 18th-round selection in the 2008 Draft, also has stayed healthy since being called up to the Marlins during the 2012 season.
"I stick to my routine and try not to sway from it," Koehler said of his offseason regimen. "I feel like I've been fortunate, because injuries do happen."
Koehler won a career-high 11 games last season, but he said he's not going to make any predictions on how well he will do or how well the pitching staff will perform this season after a disappointing 2015.
"I know there's a lot of talent," Koehler said. "Health is a big thing, and minimizing damage. Everybody that started for us last year, when they were on, they were as good as anybody, but when they're off, they're off. So those peaks and valleys are going to happen, but how shallow can you make them, how close can you be to the same guy every night? That's what you see great pitchers do. When they're off, they still give their team a chance to win. We have guys who have gained a lot of experience over the last couple of years, and I think we're getting closer to being those guys."