JUPITER, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Marlins ace Sandy Alc\u00e1ntara has already been tabbed to make his franchise-record sixth opening day start for Miami.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoing in, it was probably one of the more straightforward decisions I\u2019d have been coming into camp,\u201d manager Clayton McCullough said Friday, six weeks before the Marlins play their season opener at home on March 27 against Colorado.<\/p>\n
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After missing the entire 2024 season following Tommy John surgery, Alc\u00e1ntara’s return to the mound for the Marlins came in their season opener last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n Alc\u00e1ntara was 11-12 with a 5.36 ERA in 31 starts last season, when he was spectacular after the All-Star break following a stretch when he lost seven consecutive starts and went nearly two months between wins amid trade speculation<\/a>. The 2022 National League Cy Young Award winner and two-time All-Star went 7-3 with a 3.13 ERA over his last 12 starts.<\/p>\n \u201cI probably was most proud of just how he continued to push forward last season and how he was able to finish,\u201d McCullough said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe saw the really good version of Sandy the last two or three months of the season,\u201d said Peter Bendix, the team’s president of baseball operations. \u201cHe was essentially rehabbing in the big leagues on the fly last year, the first half of the season, and we saw a little bit of rust. … Then that flipped in the second half. So seeing the full version of Sandy on opening day is really exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n The 30-year-old right-hander is 52-67 with a 3.65 ERA in 177 career games (169 starts). His only eight relief appearances came in his only season with St. Louis in 2017, before being traded with Zac Gallen and two others to Miami in a deal that sent Marcell Ozuna to the Cardinals.<\/p>\n