‘I’m here’: Miami Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara ready to cement himself among MLB’s best
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Sandy Alcantara has a simple message etched into his glove.
“RIP Mom & Lexi” it reads.
Alcantara’s mother, Francisca Montero, died last July in the Dominican Republic. His brother, Alexander (who went by “Lexi”), died in a motorcycle accident not long after Alcantara made his MLB debut.
The simple tribute has magnified meaning.
“When you lose important people like that, like your mom and your brother, you have to respect them,” Alcantara said. “I was really close to my mom and my brother. I’m going to be remembering them for a long time.”
They will be looking upon Alcantara as the baseball world continues to understand exactly who he is, the challenges he presents opponents, the talent he could become — and is becoming.
The Miami Marlins certainly know what they have in Alcantara. They signed him to a five-year, $56 million contract extension this offseason. He’s going to be their Opening Day starting pitcher for a third consecutive year when the Marlins begin their season at 4:35 p.m. Friday against the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park.
The national recognition is starting to come, too. MLB Network ranked him as the league’s 84th-best player heading into the 2022 season, and he’s viewed as a dark horse for the Cy Young Award.
Alcantara hears it and sees it. He appreciates it.
“Three years ago, they don’t know who is Sandy Alcantara,” the pitcher said. “The job that I’ve been doing, it shows that I’m here.”
But Alcantara and the Marlins both know there’s still untapped potential hiding in their ace that they are hoping he unleashes.
“We don’t feel like he’s reached that yet,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “I think he’s still getting better and he’s got room to continue to get better.”
The evolution of an ace
Alcantara’s evolution started after he was acquired from the St. Louis Cardinals in December 2017 as part of the Marcell Ozuna trade.
He was more reserved then, a prospect learning the ropes and trying to blend into the background as he attempted to get comfortable with a new club.
He gravitated early on toward Jose Urena, the Marlins’ top-of-the-rotation pitcher at the time and a fellow native of the Dominican Republic.
“I was following him,” Alcantara said. “I was following everything he was doing. We have different pitches, but I was following everything he was doing — his routine, the consistency, the time he showed up to the park.”
Fast-forward to the present, and Alcantara is the player Marlins prospects are following around.
His stature on the field is unquestioned. Just look at his results.
Since 2019, Alcantara has a 3.48 ERA over 72 starts — the ninth-best mark among pitchers who have thrown at least 400 innings during that three-year span. His 445 innings pitches are the eighth-most in that span, even with him only making seven starts in 2020 after testing positive for COVID-19. He has three complete games, including two complete-game shutouts.
In 2021, he became just the fifth pitcher in franchise history to throw at least 200 innings and record at least 200 strikeouts in the same season. In a day and age of starting pitchers not going as deep into games, Alcantara strives to throw nine innings every time he takes the mound.
“We know how Sandy’s wired and we know how he takes care of his business and the way this guy is prepared,” pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr. said. “He has shown us from certainly all the time that I’ve been here, how he looks at things — he doesn’t take anything lightly and he’s always challenging himself and trying to push to get better. He’s the leader of our group and his work ethic and how he prepares exemplifies that.”
He has improved year over year in several key metrics, including strikeout rate (from 18 percent in 2019 to 24 percent in 2021), walk rate (down from 9.7 percent to 6 percent), expected ERA (down from 4.60 to 3.47), and swing and miss rate (up from 23.5 percent to 27.3 percent) among them.
He set career-best marks in chase rate (33.8 percent, among the top five percentile of qualified pitchers) and first-pitch strike rate (64 percent) last season and is also more comfortable in using his secondary pitches (his changeup and slider specifically) to complement his fastballs.
“It’s been fun to watch actually,” Mattingly said. “Just the whole part of Sandy’s game here from his routines, his work in between starts, his bullpens just became more precise. He has a lot of expectation for himself. And really, naturally, without even having to try, I know he talks about a little bit, has become the leader of that starting pitching staff and he’s a great example for our young guys as well.”
Taking care of the future
That example setting is taking place off the field as well.
He also took it upon himself the last two years to mentor two of the Marlins’ top pitching prospects — Sixto Sanchez and Edward Cabrera — as they maneuvered through their MLB debuts and began their careers.
“When you see talent, you’ve got to take care of it,” Alcantara said. “The first thing the Marlins told me was when they get here — Sixto and Cabrera — you’ve got to take care of these guys. I said, ‘Yeah. For sure.’ ... I’m here for Sixto or Cabrera or somebody else. I’m here for everybody.”
Even more recently, Alcantara last week organized a dinner for about 30 of the Marlins minor-leaguers at Jumby Bay, a Caribbean-flare restaurant across the street from Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium where the Marlins play their home spring training games in Jupiter.
Yadier Molina did something similar when Alcantara was with the Cardinals; Martin Prado did the same during Alcantara’s early tenure with the Marlins.
Alcantara is now in a position to do the same.
“When I came in from the Minor Leagues, I saw those guys doing that for me, and I learned from that,” Alcantara said. “I did it because I just wanted to share with them, ‘Have fun together, not just here in the park, besides the park. Try to be together, create a big conversation — not just about baseball, about life.’
“You show them that you’re there for them.”
This story was originally published April 6, 2022 at 7:00 AM.
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