Who is the best player on the Marlins roster via trade?

Which current Marlins player should be considered the best trade move the team has made?

Which player who is currently on the Marlins roster holds the distinction of being the best the team has acquired via trade?

I am going to disagree with MLB.com writer Will Leitch on this one. When it comes to the players on the Miami Marlins current roster, I am not sure Sandy Alcantara is the best player the team acquired via trade. Leitch, who wrote a piece on the best player from each MLB roster that was acquired by trade, needs to look a little closer at who has been dealt to the Marlins and what kind of production they have had.

I get what he is saying – Alcantara was the team’s lone All-Star and he has plenty of promise as a front-line starter for this organization, but has he had the same impact as other players who are currently trying to bring Miami up from the depths of the National League East cellar.

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“He came from St. Louis in the Marcell Ozuna trade and might end up being the best player Miami got in any of the [Marcell] Ozuna, [Christian] Yelich, or [Giancarlo] Stanton trades,” Leitch writes.

There you go – “might be” is not a term I would use in the present tense given there are other players on the 25-man squad who have been as impactful or more impactful then Alcantara, who has shown flashes of brilliance and incidents of inconsistency all in the first half of the 2019 season.

If you are looking at sudden impact for the Marlins, look no further than Caleb Smith, who came over from the New York Yankees as the first trade Derek Jeter made as the CEO of this organization. He also brought along Garrett Cooper for the ride. Both, when healthy, have proven their worth on the mound and in the lineup.

Zac Gallen was also part of the deal that the team made with St. Louis for Alcantara and after a dominant first half of the 2019 Pacific Coast League season, Gallen has a chance tonight to win his second game in a row in his seventh start in Miami. Gallen pitched a gem last week against the Chicago White Sox, showing he can be a top-shelf arm if given the proper run support.

Then there is Jorge Alfaro who came over from the Philadelphia Phillies in the J.T. Realmuto deal this offseason. Alfaro has been a solid hitter and surprising power source in Miami. And he is one of the fastest catchers to run the base pads in the Majors. Based on the fact the Marlins got Sixto Sanchez in the deal as well, who will be the Marlins ace of the future, I would say Miami won this deal, hands down.

I understand where Leitch is coming from and he could be right in a few years, but for now, there are other choices that make more sense than the tall, lanky righty. I would certainly look to other players and their success this season before making the claim Alcantara is the best currently to wear a Marlins uniform.