was a lofty standard<\/a>, a mighty oak that cracked through a time capsule to sprout in a field of saplings. Modern soil usually doesn\u2019t support his kind.<\/p>\nIn 228 \u2154 innings, Alcantara worked six complete games and finished with a 2.28 ERA. Only two other pitchers in this century have had a season with that many innings and complete games and a better ERA: Zack Greinke in 2009 and F\u00e9lix Hern\u00e1ndez in 2010.<\/p>\n
The others to do it in Alcantara\u2019s lifetime are Greg Maddux, Pedro Mart\u00ednez and Roger Clemens. Those guys visited the ninth inning a few times, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cSandy doesn\u2019t like it when other guys take on his pressure,\u201d said the Yankees\u2019 Jazz Chisholm Jr., who played behind Alcantara for four seasons. \u201cHe wants it to be only him. He\u2019s that type of dog that wants to lead and finish it. He has that old-school warrior mentality, like: \u2018If I\u2019m the king and I\u2019m the leader, we\u2019re going to die with me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
So who was that imposter in Alcantara\u2019s uniform early last season? He was a right-hander wearing No. 22, but he couldn\u2019t even get through six innings in 10 of his first 11 starts. For every four strikeouts, he\u2019d have three walks. And even with all those base runners, only two batters hit into double plays.<\/p>\n
Alcantara\u2019s struggles underscored a harsh reality for many pitchers returning from Tommy John surgery: recovering their inner ace can take longer than they think.<\/p>\n
\u201cEarly in the year, especially versus left, we just saw a lot of deep counts, we saw bigger misses than he probably historically had, and I attribute a lot to just the time away and how much time he missed with the surgery,\u201d Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said. \u201cHis stuff was close to what it was late in the year as it was early, (it was just) his ability to execute and get ahead of people.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his last three starts before the All-Star break, Alcantara gave up 24 hits and 18 earned runs in 17 innings. He vacationed in Puerto Rico for a mental reset, leaving his 4-9 record and 7.22 ERA behind.<\/p>\n
The ulnar collateral ligament, which he\u2019d torn on his final pitch of a victory in September 2023, was finally stable. The sharpness, and the confidence that comes with it, was about to come into focus.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe \u201925 season for me was hard, fighting to be in Sandy Mode,\u201d he said. \u201cBut the second half, I started feeling that I can do it. It was a good second half for me, and now, in the 2026 season, I\u2019m doing great.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alcantara\u2019s late surge (5-1 with a 2.68 ERA in his final eight starts) came after the trading deadline. Had he figured it out earlier, the Marlins \u2013 who aggressively seek future value \u2013 might have dealt him. Instead, they flirted with contention and have now posted a 55-45 record in their last 100 games, including 6-4 this year.<\/p>\n
With a $21 million option for 2027, a full-strength Alcantara would command a major return in a trade this summer. Or, less likely, the Marlins could make him a fair-market extension offer and build around him. Asked about the latter possibility, Alcantara responded carefully.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m here. This is my team for nine years, so I\u2019m feeling great about the opportunity that this organization gave to me. I can\u2019t say much about it because I don\u2019t know what they\u2019re talking (about) out there.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just a player; I want to be out there and compete. But, I mean, I don\u2019t know. If they want me to stay for more years here, I\u2019m ready to stay. If they want to trade me, I\u2019m ready to leave, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chisholm, who was traded to the Yankees in 2024 \u2013 a year after representing the Marlins on the cover of \u201cMLB The Show\u201d \u2013 said: \u201cThey\u2019ll flip him. I hope he gets to stay there his whole career and become Mr. Marlin. That\u2019d be cool. But we thought that was going to be (Christian) Yelich or (Giancarlo) Stanton, and look at where we\u2019re at now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under Peter Bendix, Miami\u2019s president of baseball operations, the Marlins have used starters to acquire the kinds of high-impact, everyday position players they rarely chase as free agents: outfielder Kyle Stowers came from the Baltimore Orioles for Trevor Rogers, and outfielder Owen Caissie from the Chicago Cubs for Edward Cabrera. Dealing Alcantara, in theory, could bring a similar windfall.<\/p>\n
Then again, the Marlins could simply keep Alcantara, see how this season plays out, and revisit his future over the winter.<\/p>\n
In any case, Alcantara has only raised both his trade value and the Marlins\u2019 hopes for the present. He fired seven shutout innings against the Colorado Rockies on opening day, then reached the same point against the White Sox at 79 pitches. When it took just five pitches to zip through the eighth, there was no stopping Alcantara from taking the mound for the ninth.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince the first inning, I was fighting to throw less than 10 pitches per inning,\u201d he said. \u201cSo inning by inning, no conversation at all with my manager. Just back out there for the ninth and finish the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
McCullough said that he \u201cdefinitely\u201d could count on Alcantara for 200 innings again, as long as he follows his typical formula: filling up the strike zone and generating ground balls, usually with changeups and sinkers.<\/p>\n
The 200-innings threshold is rare these days \u2013 only Logan Webb, Christopher Sanchez and Garrett Crochet reached it last season \u2013 but Alcantara\u2019s benchmark is his alone.<\/p>\n
He is the only pitcher to work 228 innings in any of the last eight full seasons. In the eight full seasons before that (2009-2016), it happened 43 times. If Alcantara has his way, he will stand tall again, in Miami or elsewhere, sturdier than all the rest.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t scare me,\u201d Alcantara said of all those innings. \u201cI was born to play baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2013 Early in Sandy Alcantara\u2019s career, when he\u2019d already made efficiency part of his identity, he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2395],"tags":[5,1816,778,58,4171,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-668127","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-marlins","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-marlins","10":"tag-miami","11":"tag-miami-marlins","12":"tag-miamimarlins","13":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116362921259388138","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}