Sandy Alcantara finally looks like an ace again. That’s critical for the Marlins
Sandy Alcantara knows who he is at his best. He knows what he provides his team when everything is working, when his pitches are landing where he wants, when he has both the physical and mental fortitude to unleash his arsenal and execute his game plan.
But it’s been a while since Alcantara truly felt like he was in that place.
“A long time ago,” Alcantara said.
He went through rough times. Tommy John surgery knocked out his 2024 season. The process of getting back to ace form lingered through the first half of the Miami Marlins’ 2025 season. He showed glimpses of what he used to be, that Cy Young-level production down the stretch — pitching “good enough,” in his words — to be content with how his first season back from surgery unfolded.
But he wasn’t truly back.
Now? Two starts into the 2026 season?
Alcantara feels back.
The Marlins’ ace followed up his seven innings of one-run ball on Opening Day by tossing his fifth career shutout — and 13th career complete game overall — on Wednesday, holding the Chicago White Sox to just three hits and four total baserunners while striking out seven in a 10-0 Miami win at loanDepot park.
“Today,” Alcantara said postgame, “was my day.”
The Marlins hope this is his season, the campaign that reasserts Alcantara as one of Major League Baseball’s top starting pitchers. He was at that point in 2022, when he was the National League’s unanimous Cy Young winner after posting a 2.28 ERA with 228 2/3 innings pitched, six complete games and a shutout over his 32 starts.
Alcantara knows that version of him is still inside him, waiting to be unleased again.
And he’s doing his part to get back to that form. Going through the struggles early in 2025 — his ERA hit 7.22 through his first 18 starts before finding his form in the back half to the tune of a 3.33 ERA and .218 batting average against in his final 13 starts — fueled him.
“My mentality is completely different,” Alcantara said.
He’s done that so far to start the 2026 season.
On Friday, Alcantara became the first Marlins pitcher to throw at least seven innings on Opening Day since Henderson Alvarez III in 2015 and the sixth overall in franchise history, also joining Josh Beckett in 2004, Ryan Dempster in 2002, Alex Fernandez in 2000 and Kevin Brown in both 1997 and 1996.
He needed just 73 pitches that day against the Colorado Rockies to make it through seven innings, facing the minimum in the first three innings and final three innings before navigating through trouble in the fourth when he allowed an unearned run.
Alcantara followed that up with an even better performance Wednesday. Alcantara only allowed three singles and a hit by pitch in the outing. No White Sox batter advanced past first base. He needed just 93 pitches — 69 of which landed for strikes — to get 27 outs for the second “Maddux” (a shutout in fewer than 100 pitches) of his career.
“After the first few innings, you kind of have an idea that it’s going to be really good,” said catcher Liam Hicks, who hit a home run and had four RBI to aid in Alcantara’s cause. “But the thing with him is you’ve just got to keep pushing him. Treat it like it’s a 0-0 game the whole time.”
He needed no more than 14 pitches in any inning. This included a five-pitch eighth, which put his pitch count at just 84 — a low enough number that manager Clayton McCullough felt comfortable enough to send Alcantara back to the mound to finish what he started.
“Today was remarkable,” McCullough said.
Alcantara once again mixed in everything in his repertoire. He threw 26 changeups, 24 four-seam fastballs, 16 sliders, 14 sinkers, eight sweepers and five cutters. He got three strikeouts with the slider, two with the fastball and one apiece on the changeup and sinker.
“Everything was good today,” Alcantara said. “I think I did a great job trying to not miss too much. Go in and out with the heater, try to finish with the breaking ball. Did a great job.”
Alcantara’s five shutouts are tied with Brown for third-most in Marlins history, behind only A.J. Burnett and Dontrelle Willis, who each had eight. His 13 complete games also trail only Willis (15) and Burnett (14) in Marlins history.
It was reminiscent of the masterclasses he was throwing not too long ago, a reminder of the talent at the top of Miami’s rotation.
And it was another sign for Alcantara that he is trending in the right direction as he returns to his ace form.
“I’ve been through a lot,” Alcantara said. “A lot of people were talking a lot of negative things about myself. Just trying to not think too much about it and just be out there helping my teammates to win the game and do my best every fifth day.”
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