How will the Miami Marlins do without Sandy Alcantara?

The Miami Marlins made the playoffs for the first time in a full season since 2003. It's important to keep this momentum going, and now the team has to find a new GM. This shocking piece of news, came after The Fish lost 2022 National League Cy Young award winner Sandy Alcantara for the 2024 season, due to Tommy John Surgery. How can The Fish return to the playoffs without him?

The Miami Marlins will attempt to return to the playoffs in 2024 without Sandy Alcantara.

Sandy Alcantara was amazing during the 2022 season. He produced 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 well-worth the National Lague Cy Young award, and was worth an amazing 7.8 WAR. There was no doubt that Sandy was the best starting pitcher in the game that season.

If someone said that the Miami Marlins would make the playoffs in 2023, with Sandy Alcantara taking a massive step back, who would believe it? It seemed pretty certain that for The Fish to make the playoffs in 2023, Sandy had to at least still pitch as an ace, (if repeating his 2022 production was going to be unlikely). Well, he didn't pitch as an ace, and The Fish still made the playoffs.

Sandy Alcantara was strikingly mediocre in 2023. He produced 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 worth 3.4 WAR and seemed to be more of a mid-rotation starter than an ace. Yet despite that performance, The Fish made the playoffs. Do you see my point now?

The Miami Marlins have to replace a 4.14 ERA in 184.2 innings pitched in 2024. That's very doable. Let's get something out of the way, Sandy is an elite pitcher when healthy and the team will miss him. That said, Jesús Luzardo (3.63 ERA/3.55 FIP in 178.2 innings pitched in 2023); Braxton Garrett (3.66 ERA/3.68 FIP in 159.2 innings pitched in 2023); Trevor Rogers (4.00 ERA/4.09 FIP in 18.0 innings pitched in 2023); Eury Pérez (3.15 ERA in 91.1 innings pitched in 2023); and Edward Cabrera (4.24 ERA/4.43 FIP) in 99.2 innings pitched.

We wish Sandy Alcantara a speedy recovery, but the Miami Marlins shouldn't be majorly affected in making the playoffs again in 2024.