JUPITER, Fla. — Sandy Alcantara kept the message brief Wednesday. The Miami Marlins’ ace, after all, would rather lead by example than lead by talking.
“I don’t want to use my voice too much,” Alcantara said a day later. “I don’t like talking. If they want to get better, they’re going to watch how we work.”
But as Alcantara talked for about a minute and a half on the back fields of the Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium complex, the group of pitchers around him remained quiet and attentive.
That’s the command Alcantara draws from his teammates nowadays, and rightfully so.
He’s the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner and one of the top pitchers in baseball. He’s the undisputed leader of the Marlins’ pitching staff.
So when the Marlins held their first official workout of spring training Thursday, of course all eyes were on the ace during his bullpen session, his first official step toward defending his title for the 2023 season.
“When I see Sandy out there,” first-year manager Skip Schumaker said, “I kind of let him do his thing.”
Alcantara doing his thing last season led to one of the most productive individual seasons by a pitcher in Marlins history.
He was the first Marlins player to win a Cy Young Award and the first NL pitcher to win the award in unanimous fashion since the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw in 2014.
He led MLB in innings pitched (228 2/3) and complete games (six). He worked at least eight innings in 14 of his starts — the most by any MLB pitcher since 2014. Alcantara’s 2.28 ERA was the second-lowest in Marlins’ history (behind Kevin Brown’s 1.89 in 1996) and in the National League in 2022 (behind Julio Urias’ 2.16). He held opponents to two earned runs or fewer in 25 of his 32 starts.
“He’s really good,” catcher Jacob Stallings, who was behind home plate for all of Alcantara’s pitches last season, said in the understatement of camp. “He was obviously so phenomenal last year. He took me on a ride that will be one of the highlights of my career.”
And now comes the daunting task: Building on that success and anchoring the Marlins’ rotation as the team tries to finally put together a successful season. Miami is coming off a 2022 season in which they finished 69-93 and fourth in the National League East behind three teams that made the playoffs in the Atlanta Braves, New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies.
Alcantara said “nothing changed” as far as his goals for this season.
“Just follow my routine,” Alcantara said. “Keep working on everything I can do to be that guy.”
Pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr., meanwhile, made one thing clear.
“Look, everybody’s gonna be gunning for Sandy,” Stottlemyre said. “I promise you.”
With that, there are subtle aspects of Alcantara’s game where he can improve.
Most notably: Holding baserunners.
When Alcantara was on the mound last season, the Marlins only caught four of 28 potential basestealers. For his career, 53 of 68 potential basestealers (78 percent) successfully stole bases.
“The guy that matches up in our division against him is going to be equally as good, so there’s going to be low scoring games,” Stottlemyre said. “The running game thing is going to be important that we get more efficient at that and keep guys in double-play situations.”
This and that
— Huascar Brazoban was the only Marlins player absent from camp who was supposed to report for Thursday’s workout. He is dealing with a visa issue, Schumaker said.
— General manager Kim Ng on the offseason as a whole, which included the Marlins acquiring infielders Luis Arraez, Jean Segura and Jacob Amaya, starting pitcher Johnny Cueto, and relievers Matt Barnes, JT Chargois and A.J. Puk: ”It was slow [to start], as you guys know, but I think in the end, we did what we wanted to do. ... Overall, I thought it was a pretty good offseason for us.
