MIAMI -- Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara held back the tears as he walked off the mound and tipped his cap to the loanDepot park crowd during Friday night’s 6-2 victory over the Mets.
About an hour later, as Alcantara reflected on everything from his future to his family, he couldn’t contain the tears while cradling his baby daughter, Mavie Isabella.
In a trying 2025 season, Alcantara saved arguably his best start for last, holding the postseason-hopeful Mets to two runs over a season-high seven-plus innings. During one stretch, Alcantara recorded 12 consecutive outs via grounders.
“I'm a strong man,” Alcantara said. “The way that I started the season, I saw a lot of negative things in the media and everywhere, but [that] didn’t stop me from keep doing what I was doing. Everything feels great. Today was my last game, but next year it's going to be completely different.”
It didn’t seem promising early on, as the Mets tagged Alcantara for two runs in the first. Francisco Lindor crushed Alcantara’s second pitch -- a center-cut sinker -- over the right-center-field wall for a leadoff homer. Pete Alonso later tacked on an RBI double.
But that would be it despite Alcantara flirting with traffic in each inning until the fifth. So efficient was Alcantara that manager Clayton McCullough rewarded the flamethrower with the eighth inning at 96 pitches. Following a four-pitch walk to Lindor, however, Alcantara was done.
“Early in the season, not sure how that one would have gone,” McCullough said. “I think now he's just able to put things together much differently, and then he finds another gear late in games. Using the word ‘proud,’ but like someone who's had already a very terrific career to this point, but to see how he responded through the season and how he finished, and the ability tonight to go do that was just a credit, a testament to him.”
Added Alonso: “I mean, Sandy’s an ace, and he did what aces do. He buckled down and made adjustments.”
This was vintage Sandy Alcantara, who had lost the qualifier of ace in his turbulent return from Tommy John surgery.
For five months, a helpless Alcantara had no answers for his performance. He held the highest ERA (6.04) in the Majors as late into the season as Aug. 25. Even in a down year, though, Alcantara entered the series opener with the highest fWAR (1.7) among qualifying Marlins starters, and the 19th highest among NL pitchers.
Over his final 12 starts, Alcantara flipped a switch. He compiled a 3.13 ERA, going six innings or more in all but two of them.
“He's been the same guy every day, and that is our leader,” said Connor Norby, whose pinch-hit homer capped the decisive six-run fifth inning. “We're a young clubhouse, and he was kind of thrusted in that role, and he's not a huge vocal guy, but we go as he goes. I know this year hasn't been what he wanted it to be in his bounceback year, but when it came time to push and shove, he was there in the fight with us every day, and he was great for us down this stretch. He could easily have thrown in the towel and folded, but he didn't, and he kept working and trying to essentially figure it out, get back to himself. That's our ‘go guy.’ We go as he goes.”
Next up is seeing what the Marlins do this offseason. Alcantara was the subject of trade rumors leading up to the Deadline, only to stay put. With Miami exceeding expectations and appearing to be ahead of schedule, might the front office hold on to Alcantara and build one of the Majors’ most enviable rotations?
Starting-pitching options would include righties Alcantara, Eury Pérez, Edward Cabrera, Max Meyer, Adam Mazur and Ryan Gusto as well as lefties Ryan Weathers and Braxton Garrett, who will be coming back from his own Tommy John procedure.
That’s not including top prospects Thomas White, Robby Snelling and Dax Fulton, a trio of southpaws pitching at Triple-A Jacksonville.
“A lot of emotions,” Alcantara said. “So I was close to crying. I don't know what's going to happen after Sunday, just trying to take every special moment that I had with my teammates. I play for the Marlins, so I'm not going to say this is my last start here [with the] Marlins. But yeah, let's see what happens. We’ve got to get ready in Spring Training and try to win more games than we did this year.”