Sandy Alcantara Is Finally Getting Traded This Summer and the Bidding War Has Already Started
Sandy Alcantara has been a trade candidate for what feels like five years. This is the summer it actually happens.
Multiple MLB insiders now believe the Marlins will finally move the 2022 NL Cy Young winner before the August 3 trade deadline. Miami is going nowhere in the National League standings. Alcantara is under control for one more season at a reasonable $21 million club option. The combination of his contract value and the Marlins’ status as one of the worst teams in baseball makes a trade the obvious move.
That is why every contender in baseball is going to make a call.
Alcantara is not the player he was in his Cy Young season. His command has slipped since the Tommy John surgery he underwent in late 2023. His ERA has been in the high threes for most of 2026. But he is still a top-25 starter in the game when healthy, and he comes with the kind of contract control that makes a deadline trade an investment in next year as much as this season.
The list of suitors writes itself. The Dodgers, who are already running a Cy Young chase for Tarik Skubal, would love to add Alcantara as a second piece. The Yankees need starting pitching. The Phillies have to fortify their rotation behind Zack Wheeler. The Mets are in the buy zone. The Cubs are in first place and looking to push. The Red Sox have been buyers all summer.
The Mariners, the Orioles, and even the Astros, if they can avoid blowing up the roster, have all been mentioned in various reports. Six contenders chasing one ace.
The Marlins front office should be feeling good about the leverage. The asking price for Alcantara is going to be steep. Miami has been quietly building a deep farm system, and adding more high-upside prospects in exchange for a year-and-a-half of Alcantara would be a coup. The price is going to be at least one MLB-ready piece and two top-100 prospects.
The complicating factor is whether the Marlins want to keep Alcantara through his option year and try to be competitive in 2027. They could exercise the $21 million option and use him as the centerpiece of a real push next season. That is the optimistic version of the Marlins offseason plan.
The realistic version is that Miami is years away from contending and trading Alcantara at his highest possible value is the smart move. The pitcher market does not have many top options. Skubal will be the biggest name. Alcantara is the second biggest. Robbie Ray, Sandy’s longtime Padres teammate going back to Toronto days, is a distant third.
From Alcantara’s side, a move to a contender would be everything. He has been pitching for losing Marlins teams for the entire prime of his career. Getting to a playoff race in July, throwing for a real fan base in October, and pitching to a competent defense behind him would be a career-defining shift.
The bidding will heat up in the next four weeks. Teams will check in with Miami. The Marlins will set their price. Eventually one of the contenders will pay it. By the time August 3 arrives, Sandy Alcantara will be wearing different colors and a real contender will have a new co-ace.
Mark the date. This deal is the second-biggest one of the summer behind Skubal. It is also the one that probably gets done first.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
