Marlins ace Alcantara sharp in first start since '23
Christina De Nicola
@cdenicola13PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- ¡°El Caballo¡± is back.
Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara took the mound for the first time in 521 days, maxing out at 99.3 mph on the radar gun and tossing a scoreless inning in Sunday afternoon¡¯s 1-1 Grapefruit League tie with the Mets at Clover Park.
¡°I say ¡®Thanks God¡¯ for giving me the opportunity to be out there and compete and be healthy,¡± Alcantara said. ¡°It feels great after a long time without competing. So everything feels great today. Little nervous, but after that first pitch, I forget about everything.¡±
Velocity has always been a part of Alcantara¡¯s game, and Sunday was no different. In 2023, only Reds right-hander Hunter Greene had a higher average fastball velo (98.3 mph) than him (97.8 mph). Of Alcantara¡¯s 17 pitches (13 strikes) against the Mets, five clocked in at 99-plus mph. No other Major League starter has reached 99 mph so far this spring.
After firing a 97.8 mph first pitch, Alcantara induced a soft lineout to first from Luisangel Acu?a before Mark Vientos singled to right. On a tailor-made double-play ball off the bat of Brett Baty, second baseman Javier Sanoja bobbled the grounder and had to settle for one out. Alcantara ended his outing with a 98.7 mph sinker that Jose Siri swung through.
The outing exceeded even the confident Alcantara¡¯s expectations. He admitted to wondering whether he might walk a batter because of the rust. Turns out there was no need to worry.
¡°I know that the hard work that I was doing in the offseason, during my rehab, today, my arm feels so good, and I'm just trying to let it go,¡± Alcantara said. ¡°I was good throwing where I want to throw it, just missed a couple times, trying to be too perfect. But after that, just trying to throw in the middle and let those guys swing.¡±
The 29-year-old Alcantara, who underwent Tommy John surgery on Oct. 6, 2023, had not pitched in a game setting since making a rehab start for Triple-A Jacksonville on Sept. 21, 2023. On his road to recovery, he played catch for the first time on March 9, 2024, and threw live batting practice on Sept. 17. There was a chance of Alcantara pitching last season had the club been in the postseason picture.
With Alcantara¡¯s return, the Marlins welcome back one of the Majors¡¯ best workhorses and the 2022 NL Cy Young Award winner. Until his injury, he led all qualified pitchers with 858 1/3 innings pitched since 2019, including back-to-back 200-plus-frame seasons from '21-22. His 6.66 innings per start over his past three seasons were the highest by any qualified starter in a three-year span since Corey Kluber averaged 6.74 innings per start from 2016-18.
¡°Pretty good, and that's what you want to see,¡± Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. ¡°You want to see the best players in the game on the field. It's been a long year for him rehabbing and today, I'm pretty sure it was a big deal for him -- first time out there after what he went through. First pitch, I think it was 97 [mph]. He was consistently hitting 98, 99 with life -- the Alcantara that we've seen in the past. Good players, that's what you want to see, the best players in the game competing between the lines."
It was such a must-see event that Marlins not on the travel roster like Valente Bellozo, who pitched on Saturday, Deyvison De Los Santos and Eury P¨¦rez made the 40-mile trip up Interstate 95 to watch the face of the franchise.
¡°[It] just shows how much he means to a lot of the guys in our clubhouse,¡± Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said. ¡°It's a credit to him [for] guys to come up here, just to watch that, knowing how big a deal it was for him and us. So that was really cool.¡±
Though Alcantara looked like his vintage self, he did so with the help of a new batterymate: Rule 5 Draft selection Liam Hicks, who has not played above the Double-A level. From 2022-23, Alcantara pitched exclusively to Jacob Stallings outside of a March 6, 2023, Grapefruit League game.
Sunday marked the beginning of Alcantara¡¯s progression to the season opener. Miami already announced that Alcantara will make his franchise-record fifth Opening Day start on March 27, when the club hosts Pittsburgh at loanDepot park.
¡°He shook [me] a few times,¡± Hicks said. ¡°I think he had a pretty good idea of what he wanted to do. Seems today like he wanted to really attack with the fastball. I don't know why you wouldn't when it's 99 coming out really easy.¡±