Marlins Must Develop “Win Now” Mindset for Their Ace
In this story:
Miami Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara has been a tremendous leader and pitcher for the franchise for a long time.
It’s time for Alcantara to achieve a bigger goal to fulfill his baseball career.
Alcantara Must Compete for a Championship
It's not easy to construct a championship team. Many factors go into a team reaching the World Series and winning it all. One key factor is a strong pitching roster.
The Marlins are lucky to have their number one pitcher in their rotation, and that’s Alcantara. Coming into the season, many people were looking at Eury Perez as their number two best pitcher in the rotation. However, it’s Max Meyer who has been pitching like a legitimate number two starter.
Perez has returned from the injury list and if he can have a bounce-back second-half season, since we are almost at the end of the first half, Miami is in good shape to have Alcantara, Perez, and Meyer as a triple threat in the rotation.
However, we might wonder if Alcantara will be with the Marlins for the rest of the season. The trade deadline is at the end of July, and the front office will be listening to trade offers and see if they can find a good package deal for Alcantara. We’ve been hearing the trade talks about Alcantara even before the season started.
How lucky are the Marlins and the fanbase to have witnessed Alcantara becoming the Marlins' strikeout leader on Tuesday night? If he had been traded before the season started, we would not have witnessed this historic moment in Miami. It’s safe to say that Alcantara has officially cemented himself as a Marlins legend by accomplishing this goal.
Now, we want to see him win a World Series. With this current Marlins roster, it’s possible, especially if they can add another arm in the bullpen or another solid starter. In terms of hitting, the Marlins are capable of competing against anyone. A lineup of Xavier Edwards, Liam Hicks, Kyle Stowers, Otto Lopez, Joe Mack, and Owen Caissie can put pressure on any pitcher if their bats stay hot.
Any team can get hit at the right time, and we must remember that three teams can make the playoffs as wild-card teams. The opportunities to compete for a championship are more lenient than they were 20 or even 30 years ago.
The Marlins should have a “let’s win right now” mentality and give a player like Alcantara that gift because he’s been a cornerstone and loyal player for this team for almost ten seasons.
Alcantara has won a Cy Young, made two All-Star games, and is the strikeout leader in franchise history. Now it's time for him to earn a ring. Hopefully, it happens while he’s still wearing a Marlins uniform. Alcantara has an 8-4 record this season with a 4.01 ERA and 81 strikeouts.
Add us as a preferred source on Google
After graduating from City College of New York in 2014, Miguel created his own blog. Since 2021, he has written for FanSided, where he covered the Toronto Blue Jays, College Football and Utah Mammoth hockey team. He also wrote for Miami Heat on SI and Cleveland Sports Talk. Miguel is the creator and host of his podcast, Baseball Heat Podcast with Mike.