JUPITER, Fla. (AP) — Marlins ace Sandy Alcántara has already been tabbed to make his franchise-record sixth opening day start for Miami.
“Going in, it was probably one of the more straightforward decisions I’d have been coming into camp,” manager Clayton McCullough said Friday, six weeks before the Marlins play their season opener at home on March 27 against Colorado.
After missing the entire 2024 season following Tommy John surgery, Alcántara’s return to the mound for the Marlins came in their season opener last year.
Alcántara 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. 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.
“I probably was most proud of just how he continued to push forward last season and how he was able to finish,” McCullough said.
“We saw the really good version of Sandy the last two or three months of the season,” said Peter Bendix, the team’s president of baseball operations. “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. … Then that flipped in the second half. So seeing the full version of Sandy on opening day is really exciting.”
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.
During his Cy Young season, Alcántara was 14-9 with a 2.28 ERA and 207 strikeouts in a league-leading 228 2/3 innings.
In a video posted by the team announcing the decision, Alcántara expressed his thanks for the chance to again pitch on opening day.
“I came here with the mentality to compete like always for a spot No. 1, No. 2, whatever,” he said. “Super excited about another opportunity to be on the mound for the Marlins, and I’m very happy.”
Alcántara is also planning to pitch for the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic next month.
McCullough said the pitcher looks great physically and had a great offseason. He expects Alcántara will be able to get stretched out while pitching in the WBC and be in good shape when he gets back into camp with the Marlins.
“We’ll just pick things up from where he’s at,” McCullough said. “But I anticipate that when we get to opening day, Sandy will be right at, or if not, close to what he would have been had he just stayed here.”