ST. LOUIS – It was hard to tell whether the usually stoic Sandy Alcantara was getting emotional or just recovering from the elements following his last start before the Trade Deadline.
Alcantara went five scoreless innings in the Marlins’ 5-0 win over the Cardinals on Tuesday night at Busch Stadium. It was poetic that he shut down the organization that signed him as a teenager out of Azua, Dominican Republic, before sending him to Miami as the headliner in the return for All-Star outfielder Marcell Ozuna in December 2017.
“Nothing on my mind right now,” Alcantara said. “Everyone knows -- my teammates know, coaches, myself, my family know that I want to be here. But if something happens tonight, tomorrow, I don't know when it happens. Just got to control what I can control. Just be out there every fifth day here in Miami or somewhere else. I don't know.”
Alcantara worked out of trouble in each of his five frames, scattering three hits, walking three and striking out four in a 94-pitch outing.
It was evident from the get-go that the humid 93-degree evening would have an effect, as Alcantara plunked Masyn Winn with his first pitch. He also didn’t have his elite velocity, but he gradually got it back and maxed out at 99.9 mph in the fifth.
“Yeah, he did a nice job,” Cardinals manager Oli Marmol said. “The changeup was a real pitch for him. In the first, you could tell he was feeling his way through it, even the first hitter, and then he settled in. After that, the velo ticked up to 97, some 99, and the changeup was real. He did a nice job with the changeup at the bottom zone, and that kept us from doing a whole lot with it.”
And in the game’s two biggest moments, both involving battles between Alcantara and Alec Burleson, Miami’s ace came out on top.
With runners at the corners and two outs in the third, Alcantara fired a 99.8 mph sinker – his fastest pitch of the game at the time – to get Burleson to fly out to center. St. Louis loaded the bases on a bloop hit, a walk and a hit-by-pitch in the fifth to set up another matchup between the pair. Burleson would swing through Alcantara’s sinker outside the zone on the fifth pitch of the at-bat to escape the jam.
“Those were obviously huge,” said rookie Liam Hicks, who caught Alcantara after Nick Fortes was dealt to Tampa Bay earlier in the day. “If you look at maybe earlier in the year, it was moments like that where the inning broke open. I think he's done a really good job the last couple starts of just limiting that and just locking in in those big moments, which is what he's known for.”
Though Alcantara’s return from Tommy John surgery has been bumpy (his 6.66 ERA was the second-highest among 80 Major League pitchers with at least 100 frames entering Tuesday), he has tossed 14 consecutive shutout innings dating back to July 18.
Between his most recent performances and his Cy Young pedigree, Alcantara continues to be one of the biggest names in trade rumors leading up to Thursday’s 6 p.m. ET Deadline. Alcantara, who turns 30 on Sept. 7, is due to make $17.3 million in 2026 and has a $21 million club option for ‘27 ($2 million buyout).
That made back-to-back nights in St. Louis where Miami started two of the more popular names in the rumor mill. Right-hander Edward Cabrera allowed two runs (one earned) over six innings in Monday’s loss. Since May 25, his 2.11 ERA is sixth-lowest among all qualified pitchers.
Both Alcantara (2027) and Cabrera (‘28) are under club control for multiple seasons, so Miami doesn’t need to move them. But if a club calls with an adequate return package, it might be tough to say no.
“One, he's a great person,” Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said of Alcantara. “He's incredibly humble. I think what he has gone through this year, which has been well-documented, it hasn't been the start of the season as he would like, but he just hangs in there, continuing to try to problem solve between starts.
“You know you're going to get someone that's going to go out there and compete with every pitch he has. The amount of trust that our clubhouse has in Sandy and the confidence we have in Sandy has never wavered, and these last two have been great. Twelve really terrific innings and get a couple wins. Proud of how Sandy just continues to just chug along and he's continued to dig himself out of the early-season struggles.”