Marlins Exercise Club Option On Sandy Alcantara

There was never a doubt that this option would be picked up. Alcantara had a strong rebound in his second season back from Tommy John surgery. Major League Baseball’s consummate workhorse tossed 214 innings — tops in either league — and notched a 3.87 earned run average. Alcantara’s 17.1% strikeout rate was well below average, but his 6.6% walk rate was strong and his 41.9% ground-ball rate was about average.

Because of the Marlins’ perennially small payroll and frequent rebuilds, Alcantara’s name has come up in trade chatter at seemingly every turn over the years. That’s far less likely to be the case this winter, even as he heads into his final year of contractual control.

The Marlins reportedly have no interest in trading Alcantara and have every intent of keeping him and starting him on Opening Day once again next season. President of baseball operations Peter Bendix has spoken of Alcantara’s importance to the club on multiple occasions, and he’s unsurprisingly said to be a personal favorite of owner Bruce Sherman.

If anything, Miami could look to extend the 2021 NL Cy Young Award winner between now and Opening Day. It’d likely require the largest contract they’ve ever given to a pitcher; Wei-Yin Chen’s $80MM deal currently holds that distinction, but a new Alcantara deal would likely top nine figures and require paying something in the vicinity of $25-28MM annually over a period of four to five years.

At present, Giancarlo Stanton (13 years, $325MM) and Jose Reyes (six years, $106MM) are the only players the Marlins have ever signed to nine-figure contracts. Neither finished out his contract as a Marlin. Neither of those deals was signed under current ownership — nor was the aforementioned Chen deal, for that matter. Since Sherman bought the Marlins just over nine years ago, the largest contract they’ve given to any player — extension or free agent — is the five-year, $56MM deal on which Alcantara is currently playing. (Today’s option decision pushes that sum to six years and $75MM total).

Alcantara’s contract is the only guaranteed salary Miami has on the books next year.  Every other player on the roster is either arbitration-eligible or pre-arbitration.  Their arb class is quite affordable, too. Otto Lopez’s $5.4MM salary is the largest sum among this year’s projected salaries (via MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz). Even if they’d tendered contracts to all 11 of their arb-eligible players — which won’t happen; they already outrighted Tyler Zuber — the total bill would check in around $30MM. With a few non-tenders likely on the horizon, Miami’s arb group will probably cost around $25-26MM.

[Related: Offseason Outlook — Miami Marlins]

That should leave Miami plenty of room to spend this winter, though that hasn’t been something the team has really been willing to do under Sherman’s watch. Alcantara rejoins a rotation group that also has Eury Pérez and Max Meyer locked into spots. Swingmen Janson Junk, Tyler Phillips, Ryan Gusto and Bradley Blalock are all on hand as options to fill out the back of the rotation while the Fish wait on the returns of top prospects Thomas White and Robby Snelling; White’s season ended in June with a capsule sprain in his shoulder. Snelling had UCL surgery in late May.

It shouldn’t be a surprise if Miami brings in some innings to round out the back of the staff. Junk, Gusto and Phillips all had good bottom-line results but posted shaky rate stats, suggesting their ERAs could be tough to sustain. The group’s track record is quite limited, too. The Fish aren’t going to jump into the top tier of free agency, but there are plenty of viable one-year veterans who’ll be in their price range, and the trade market should feature some options for them to consider as well.