Sandy Alcantara is still with the Marlins despite months of trade rumors, and the Miami ace is embracing his chance to lead the rotation into 2026.
Sandy Alcantara is still with the Miami Marlins, and as the 2026 season begins, the ace sounds genuinely relieved that all the trade speculation never turned into reality.
In a Miami Herald report by Jordan McPherson, Alcantara made it clear just how much it meant to arrive at loanDepot park this spring and know he was still part of the organization.
After months of uncertainty, the former National League Cy Young winner summed up his feelings simply: he is still here.
For a pitcher who spent much of the last year fielding questions about his future, that sense of stability appears to matter.
Trade rumors followed Alcantara for more than a year. Because of his pedigree, contract and ability to change a rotation, he always looked like one of the most valuable pitchers the Marlins could move if they chose to reshape the roster.
Instead, Miami held onto him, and that decision now looms large as the club opens the season with hopes of building on a better-than-expected 2025 campaign.
Alcantara will get the ball Friday on opening-day against the Colorado Rockies, another reminder of how central he remains to the franchise.
He has already made more opening-day starts than any pitcher in Marlins history. If he stays healthy he is on track to climb to the top of several major franchise pitching categories, including starts, innings and strikeouts.
Even so, the Herald noted that Alcantara is not focused on the personal milestones as much as he is on pitching well and helping the team win.
That mindset fits with how his 2025 season unfolded. Coming back from Tommy John surgery was not smooth at first. He struggled through the early months, posting ugly numbers and looking far from his dominant self. But the second half told a very different story.
Alcantara found his rhythm late in the year, pitching with the kind of command and poise that once made him one of the National League’s most feared starters.
His strong finish gave the Marlins reason to believe the real version of Alcantara had returned.
Manager Clayton McCullough praised the way Alcantara kept pushing forward through the difficult stretches, while president of baseball operations Peter Bendix expressed confidence that the right-hander will be much better in 2026 than he was last year.
That belief is one reason Miami never rushed to move him.
For now, the rumors are quiet. Alcantara is healthy, motivated, and exactly where he wants to be -- at the front of the Marlins’ rotation.
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