Miami Marlins Need To Stop Holding Bullpen Tryouts When Sandy Alcantara Starts

For the Miami Marlins, the 2025 season was always going to be more about learning to win than actually winning.

It's a fact that many fans understandably forgot when Miami was busy being one of the hottest teams in baseball heading into the trade deadline, making that improbable climb back to a .500 record. Unfortunately for those fans, it does not appear to be something that the Marlins front office lost sight of, at least not since the losses started mounting again.

For the most part, that's probably a good thing. Development should be the name of the game in a season like this. Next season should see a more competitive Marlins team taking the field every day, and regular season reps right now are an invaluable tool in figuring out who should be a part of that more competitive roster. It might not always be fun or pretty, but it is the right way of doing things. Sometimes, it can't be about the win.

Unless, of course, staff ace Sandy Alcantara is on the mound, and giving you an ace effort.

In those cases, you had better be treating the game like it's the most important game of the season. Because that's what Alcantara has done himself, every start of his Marlins career. When the leader of your team is acting like it's an elimination game, it's no time to manage like it's an exhibition game.

Yet that's exactly what Clayton McCullough has done in two of Alcantara's last three starts, choosing to turn things over to his weakest relievers when far better options were available. This was the approach in Boston a week ago, and was absolutely the approach during Tuesday's dismal 9th inning collapse in an 11-2 route.

Now maybe that's entirely McCullough's call. Maybe he's taking orders from higher up the chain of command. Whichever one of those it may be, it doesn't change the fact that it's unconscionable. Unconscionable and unfair. It's unfair to Alcantara, unfair to the team, and unfair to the fans.

Really, this should probably be the rule for when any of Miami's starting pitchers turns in an elite outing. It should absolutely be the rule when the game is within one run or tied entering the ninth inning. Part of teaching a team to win is actually trying to win. However, there really is no way to replicate a high leverage, late inning situation without putting young pitchers into them. Sadly, in a losing season, that does mean there might be some painful teaching moments along the way.

But Sandy moments can't be teaching moments. They just can't.

You have to make an exception for a player, a leader, who is defined by his will to win. Alcantara's whole thing is his willingness to do anything the team asks of him, to push beyond the limits of most pitchers to put his team in a position to do so. You certainly can't do it to him twice in two weeks, dumping a bucket of cold water on have effectively been his two best performances of the season.

Maybe the Marlins front office doesn't care about alienating Alcantara, and is committed to dealing him this winter. That would be a grossly unkind way to treat a franchise icon in his final season, but would at least make some baseball sense. The damage this approach will cause with the fanbase, and other leaders on the team though?

That's going to fester if the Marlins aren't careful.