‘I’m still here’: As new season begins, Sandy Alcantara happy to be with Marlins
Sandy Alcantara sat in the home dugout at loanDepot park on Feb. 6 and did something he had not been able to do much of during the past year.
He breathed a sigh of relief.
“I’m here,” Alcantara said. “I’m still here.”
Alcantara had just gone through a 2025 season filled with questions.
Will his arm and his confidence hold up after the first major surgery of his career?
Will he return to his ace form after missing all the 2024 campaign following Tommy John surgery?
And, perhaps most pertinent to South Florida, would he still be pitching for the Marlins?
Trade rumors swirled for more than year about Alcantara, the 2022 National League Cy Young Award winner. It seemed like a matter of when, not if, Alcantara would be dealt — either leading up to the 2025 season, at the trade deadline or in the offseason.
But for now, Alcantara is still a Marlin, playing out the last fully guaranteed year on his five-year, $56 million contract he signed in Novemer 2021 (that deal has a $21 million club option for the 2027 season, a campaign in jeopardy due to a looming lockout). He will be on the mound Friday when the Marlins open the season against the Colorado Rockies at loanDepot park (7:10 p.m., Marlins.TV). He will try to lead a young-yet promising team on a surprise playoff run after Miami exceeded expectations in Year 1 under manager Clayton McCullough in 2025.
And there’s no place he would rather be.
“I’m super excited to be back this year,” Alcantara said, “stronger and healthier and more competitive.”
Alcantara’s place in Marlins history is all but set already. His six Opening Day starts are twice more than any other pitcher in franchise history (Josh Beckett and Josh Johnson each did it three times). If he pitches the full season without a setback, he’ll all but assuredly set the franchise records for career starts (197 by Ricky Nolasco; Alcantara has 169, 29 shy of breaking), innings pitched (1,225 2/3 by Nolasco; Alcantara has 1,067, 159 shy of breaking) and strikeouts (1,001 by Nolasco; Alcantara has 921, 81 shy of breaking). He’s the only Marlins pitcher to win the Cy Young Award.
But Alcantara isn’t chasing milestones. He’s chasing productions and team success.
Last season was a mixed bag on that front.
Alcantara struggled early in his return from Tommy John surgery. His ERA hit 7.22 through his first 18 starts, he never went longer than six innings, and he gave up five or more runs eight times.
Alcantara found his form in the back half of the campaign, pitching to a 3.33 ERA with .218 batting average against in his final 13 starts. Eight of those 13 outings were quality starts, defined as pitching at least six innings while allowing no more than three earned runs.
“I reiterated to him that a lot has been talked about ‘25, and I’m not going to continue to revisit that,” Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said. “I’m probably most proud of just how he continued to push forward last season, and how he was able to finish, and what that meant to a lot of people in our clubhouse, the opportunity to watch how he handled himself. And no one more deserving than him to get the ball for us Opening Day.” - McCullough
Alcantara’s response to how 2025 unfolded?
“We are human,” Alcantara said. “We’re gonna have bad years, bad days. You’ve gotta feel confident, blessed and believe in yourself. Because, like I always say, God’s the only one who can judge. Just gotta keep believing.”
Alcantara always believes that he can be a game-changer. He’s proven he can be. It’s why the Marlins extended him as he was entering his prime.
It’s why he was such a hot commodity on the trade market.
And it’s why the Marlins weren’t simply going to deal him for the sake of dealing him. They had to be blown away by the offer, especially since the team believes it should be able to contend this season after going 79-83 last season and being in the playoff hunt right until the end of the season.
“I like Sandy very much as a person,” Marlins president of baseball operations Peter Bendix said. “I respect him, and I think he’s going to be a much, much better pitcher this year than he was last year. I think we saw the really good version of Sandy the last two or three months of the season, and I think we all forget that he didn’t have the opportunity to rehab after he got hurt. He 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. We saw a little bit of just not quite back to where he was, and then that flipped in the second half. So seeing the full version of Sandy on Opening Day is really exciting.”
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