Could the Miami Marlins be getting ready to trade Sandy Alcantara

When it comes to the Miami Marlins, there is always a sense that the other shoe is about to drop.

Wednesday afternoon saw the Marlins make a welcome and necessary addition when they came to terms with starting pitcher Cal Quantrill on a 1-yr, $3.5 million deal. Which is something I want to feel good about. Only good, with no reservations. They had to get the depth. Had to protect their young arms. I said as much when the story broke. The Marlins are better a team as I'm writing this than they were when I woke up, and I haven't been able to make that claim since a very regrettable moment right around this time last year when I said positive things about the signing of Tim Anderson.

Ouch, the Anderson signing. Alright, now I'm doubly nervous.

What actually worries me though is that whether despite all the seeming wisdom about adding another veteran arm, what if Peter Bendix really does believe the team only needs one? What if the addition of one veteran starting pitcher means that another one can now be moved? What if...

What if the Miami Marlins are about to trade Sandy Alcantara?

I know what many of you are thinking, and you've been thinking it since you read the word "could" in the title. Of course the Marlins are going to trade Alcantara. The matter has been talked about in not if but when terms since the moment the 2024 season crashed on the rocks, if not far earlier. Alcantara is one of the best pitchers in all of MLB. In terms of total value, when healthy, he's worth at least three times what he signed for when he agreed to that $56 million extension back in 2021. In fact, some teams might just give him that if he was a free agent right now. The only question is how long Miami chooses to hold on to him before moving on.

What gives me pause about the Quantrill signing is whether the timeline could have just dramatically sped up. Last week, Tim Dierkes of MLB Trade Rumors wrote a very insightful mailbag article that basically red-pilled me into believing the Milwaukee Brewers could be the perfect fit for an Alcantara trade. Now, it was just one example, and we could probably go through half the teams in baseball and find a deal that might work. But the Brewers scenario was largely based on the fact that projected fifth starter DL Hall was the weak link in their starting rotation...and news broke today shortly after the Quantrill signing went down that Hall was going on the shelf with a lat injury for the foreseeable future.

Are those moves directly connected? Probably not. But do I think that deep down in their heart of hearts the Miami Marlins are firmly committed to honoring an August promise not to trade Sandy Alcantara during the offseason? That would be another probably not. If the Brewers were to dangle a package headline by the actually able to play catcher Jeferson Quero and another fellow Top 100 prospect? That could be very hard to say no to for the Marlins front office.

Even if that exact scenario doesn't happen though, it's not just Brewers myopia that has the alarm bells going. All it takes is one even more crucial injury, just one flimsy elbow ligament somewhere between Arizona and Florida over the next six weeks, to drive some contender to do something desperate. Heck, you could even just go ahead and tack on April to this accelerated timeline. Conventional wisdom to this point has been either the trade deadline or next offseason for unloading Alcantara. It's what they should do, if they don't plan on keeping him.

You know, pretty much what all of us were thinking about Luis Arraez once that extension didn't happen last spring.

All I'm saying is Quantrill gives the Marlins a little more flexibility to have Sandy pack his bags earlier than anyone expected.