Big news on the ace of the Miami Marlins

Sandy Alcantara is the ace of the Miami Marlins. Deservedly so. We're hoping that Peter Bendix won't trade him at the Trade Deadline. Most likely it won't happen, but we can still have hope. As it stands, The Fish do have an interesting rotation mix, but it won't be the same if Sandy is traded. Regardless, we now know that Sandy will be on an expected inning limit in the 2025 season.

Miami Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara will have an inning limit in 2025.

It's definitely not a surprise that Sandy Alcantara will be on an inning limit in 2025. He didn't pitch at all in 2024 due to Tommy John Surgery. He last pitched in 2023, when he pitched to a 4.14 ERA/4.03 FIP, with 7.4 K/9 and 2.3 BB/9 in 28 games and 184.2 innings pitched. He was still worth an above average 3.4 WAR. Sandy's subpar (by his standards) production is certainly due to his injury. In 2022, he pitched to a 2.28 ERA/2.99 FIP, with 8.1 K/9 and 2.0 BB/9 in 32 games and 228.2 innings pitched. He was worth 8.0 WAR and won the National League Cy Young award.

It's certainly not a surprise that the Miami Marlins plan to limit Sandy's innings in order to preserve his health. We don't know the specific answer, but my guess is that 130-140 innings may be a doable number. Sadly, it does appear that keeping him ready for a big second half is one of the motivations for the inning limit potentially being somewhat significant.

I'm still holding out hope that Peter Bendix will ultimately end up keeping Sandy Alcantara, because he means so much to the franchise, but that may just be an empty hope. At the very least, we will likely get to enjoy Sandy for at least the first half of the season. If it's indeed Sandy's last season here, I just hope that he will have a good time and will show us just how good he really is. He's one of the greatest pitchers in the history of the team.