Marlins, Alcantara excited to move forward together as Deadline passes

MIAMI – Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara spent Thursday’s off-day with his family, checking his phone every two seconds while watching TV.

Alcantara kept finding his name being mentioned in trade rumors, a recurring theme since last offseason. When 6 p.m. ET came and went, Alcantara was finally able to breathe easy and move past the self-proclaimed hardest day of his life.

“I thought that I would leave, but I'm happy to be back in Miami,” Alcantara said on Friday. “This is my home. I want to stay here. But if something happened yesterday, it happens. So I'm here now. Very happy to stay.”

What will define this Trade Deadline more than anything for the surging Marlins are the trades they didn’t make.

The organization held onto Alcantara and right-hander Edward Cabrera, two of the most coveted arms on the market, as well as high-leverage reliever Anthony Bender. All three are under club control for multiple seasons, so the asking prices were steeper than rentals. President of baseball operations Peter Bendix wouldn’t comment on how close negotiations came to fruition, but he felt comfortable with the final decisions.

“It's hard to know how much it factored into the market, but for us, it's absolutely a big part of it,” Bendix said. “We know that, like you said, everybody except Cal [Quantrill], we could bring back for the next two years, in addition to all the players that we can add from the farm system, add in all different ways. That's how you build a sustainably successful team.”

Entering Friday’s series opener against the Yankees at loanDepot park, the Marlins are tied with the Brewers for the most wins (27) since June 13. As a result, rebuilding Miami found itself ahead of schedule just seven games back from the final National League Wild Card spot.

Did the club’s recent performance factor into the front office’s Deadline strategy?

“Since Spring Training, we've really believed that we have a tremendous amount of talent on this club, and we also believe that we have the right coaching staff in place to get the most out of it,” Bendix said. “So what we've seen over the last month, over the last two months, it's not really surprising to us.

“We've seen the positive developments of individual players. We've seen the cohesion of the team and the way that's all come together, and we've seen it result in really, really good baseball. That doesn't surprise us, and it's something we expect to continue moving forward.”

The front office delivered a message to the players and coaches by staying put outside of parting with catcher Nick Fortes and outfielder Jesús Sánchez, neither of which came as a surprise. Fortes’ departure allows Miami to split time behind the dish between rookie catchers Agustín Ramírez and Liam Hicks. Sánchez’s move put into motion No. 10 prospect Jakob Marsee’s callup.

“I think our group is very excited that we still have a chance here with what we have and how we've been playing to continue on,” manager Clayton McCullough said.

“Organizationally, Peter and I have been in constant communication through this. … We liked the growth of so many of our players this year, and a lot of the talent level we have that is in the organization has taken steps forward. We're happy here that we have the chance with the group that we've for the most part had this year, to continue to try to grow as a group and keep getting better.”

The season now becomes a sprint over the next two months to see if the Marlins, who were 16 games below .500 on the morning of June 13, can pull off the improbable. They will have the aforementioned trio around to help.

Bender (240 ERA+) has a team-high 18 holds. Cabrera is finally realizing his potential. So often set back by injuries and lack of command, the flamethrower was tied for the fifth-lowest ERA (2.39) among NL qualifying pitchers since May 4.

Then there’s Alcantara, who posted the highest ERA (7.14) among qualifying MLB starters through his first 19 starts following Tommy John surgery. He hasn’t yielded an earned run in consecutive outings.

“Very excited,” Alcantara said. “Everybody sees what we're doing, so we win a lot of games. Hopefully I've started getting back in my mode. Everybody's happy the way that we've been competing, the way that we've been winning games, and inside there, you can see it as soon as you step in the clubhouse, the dugout. It feels completely different.

“If we keep doing what we're doing, for sure [we can make the playoffs]. We want to be celebrating together.”