Report: Marlins won’t trade Sandy Alcantara this offseason

Report: Marlins won’t trade Sandy Alcantara this offseason

After making the NL Wild Card last year, the Miami Marlins have taken a steep step back, in part due to the absence of ace Sandy Alcantara. They were ultimately big sellers ahead of the 2024 MLB Trade Deadline, trading Luis Arraez (in early May), Jazz Chisholm Jr., Josh Bell, Tanner Scott, Trevor Rogers and Bryan De La Cruz.

Miami could look to continue selling off pieces this offseason. Though according to Marlins beat reporter Craig Mish of MLB.com, the team informed Alcantara that he won’t be one of them.

The Marlins have informed 2022 NL Cy Young Award winner Sandy Alcantara he will not be traded this offseason, per sources. As his injury rehab continues to go smoothly, the full expectation is Alcantara will be Miami’s Opening Day starter in 2025.

— Craig Mish (@CraigMish) August 14, 2024

Alcantara, who turns 29-years-old on Sept. 3, had a down 2023 season after winning the NL Cy Young award in 2022. Last year, he posted a 4.14 ERA with a 4.03 FIP and three complete games across 184.2 innings. He underwent Tommy John surgery last October, sidelining him for this season.

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It’s unclear whether or not he will be ready at the start of 2025. From one perspective, I understand the Marlins’ line of thinking–sell high and not low, if you’re choosing to trade him at all. However, the pitching market was off the charts this year.

Miami could still command a haul from Alcantara–who’s got three years, $56 million left on his deal–coming off surgery. We saw what Rogers, his own teammate, went for during the worst season of his career. It should behoove them to at least consider the option, but I digress.

Any promise to not trade him in (checks notes) mid-August inherently lowers his trade value this winter if they decide to change their mind. We’ll see how the Marlins, who own the third-worst record in MLB (45-76), plan to attack the winter with this seemingly being a multi-year rebuild.

Nevertheless, Alcantara is a workhorse. No pitcher in baseball has thrown more complete games (9) than him since the start of 2022; Houston’s Framber Valdez has the second-most (6) over that span, which Alcantara matched in 2022 alone. He’s got legitimate swing-and-miss stuff with a nasty fastball-changeup-slider combination with the bulldog mentality.

Any team–Marlins or otherwise–would be lucky to have him in their rotation at any point. Now, Miami will be tasked to not waste that opportunity before it’s too late.

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