Sandy Alcantara’s 2023 season has officially come to an end.
The Miami Marlins’ ace and reigning National League Cy Young Award winner said Saturday he will not pitch again this season as he deals with a UCL sprain in his right elbow.
“It’s very frustrating for me, a guy like me who always likes to go out and compete,” said Alcantara, who finished the season with a 4.14 ERA over 184 2/3 innings. “I feel sorry about the fans, my family, my son, my friends, the city because I want to be out there this year. Hopefully, I’ve got to be ready for next year. I don’t know. I’ve just got to keep positive.”
Alcantara, who has been dealing with the injury for about three weeks, made a rehab assignment start with Triple A Jacksonville on Thursday, throwing four shutout innings. However, he felt tightness in his forearm after the outing. The decision was made afterward to shut Alcantara down for the rest of the season.
His next steps have not yet been determined, with Alcantara saying he has to meet with his agent, general manager Kim Ng and manager Skip Schumaker to explore options.
“I don’t know yet,” said Alcantara, adding that he’s not sure what impact (if any) the injury will have on his availability for the 2024 season. “We’ve got to get together, have a conversation. I don’t know how long but we have to talk about decisions that we have to make. I don’t know if we have to decide about surgery or not. We just have to get together.”
The news also comes with the Marlins in the midst of a playoff push with just over a week left in the regular season. The Marlins entered Saturday one game behind the Chicago Cubs for the National League’s third and final wild card spot with eight games left to play.
“That’s the thing that broke my heart,” Alcantara said. I won’t be able to go out there with my teammates and compete. It doesn’t matter what happened. I just have to keep supporting them. ... Hopefully we make it to the playoffs without me. Just gotta be here and support them.”
Alcantara initially felt arm discomfort following his start against the Washington Nationals on Sept. 3. Alcantara said he felt the pain on the final pitch he threw in that game — an 83.8 mph curveball to end the eighth inning.
He began playing catch on Sept. 13 while the team was in Milwaukee for its four-game series against the Brewers before progressing to bullpens once the team returned to Miami, which set the stage for Thursday’s rehab start.
“We knew what we were dealing with,” Schumaker said Friday. “That’s just the reality of it. His bullpens were good. He felt like he could go and try it. We didn’t think it was going to get any worse. You have to love where he’s at with that mentality. That’s what you want. You want a guy to help us get in the playoffs. He was going to do whatever he could if he felt like he could go ahead. If he had one percent left, he was going to give it to us.”
This is Alcantara’s first IL stint with the Marlins for an arm injury. He has been sidelined two other times in his Miami tenure, once in 2018 for an armpit infection and again in 2020 after testing positive for COVID-19. Alcantara also skipped one start earlier this season due to biceps tendinitis.
While Alcantara struggled in the first half of the season, But his ERA has dropped to 3.20 in his 10 starts since the All-Star Break, a stretch in which he threw two complete games and pitched into the eighth inning four times.
Alcantara has also been the epitome of a workhorse since becoming a regular in the Marlins’ rotation. Since the start of the 2019 season, Alcantara has thrown 858 1/3 innings. Only Gerrit Cole (867 1/3 innings) has thrown more than Alcantara in that span.
In Alcantara’s absence, the Marlins will rely on Jesus Luzardo, Braxton Garrett and Edward Cabrera as the main starting pitchers and then bullpen days to round out the rotation to close out the regular season.
The Marlins also announced Saturday that right-handed pitcher Eury Perez was placed on the 15-day injured list with left SI joint inflammation. The team selected right-handed pitcher Jeff Lindgren to fill Perez’s spot on the roster.
This story was originally published September 23, 2023 2:39 PM.
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Jordan McPherson
Miami Herald
