Sandy Alcantara Coming For Ricky Nolasco, Miami Marlins Record Book In 2026

Records are made to be broken, Miami Marlins fans.

Which is a good thing, because as has been covered before in this space, the name at the top of most of the Marlins pitching record lists is a bit of a state secret. The knowledge of the existence of Ricky Nolasco is a bit of an age test for Marlins fans and just the test of true baseball diehard status for fans of other clubs. Just the other day, popular Twitter account MLB Hall of Pretty Good poked some fun and alluded to Nolasco's franchise wins leader status for Miami.

As you might have guessed from the Twitter handle that just reintroduced him to the world earlier this week, Nolasco was...pretty good, at least for a couple years there. Yet it's hardly disrespectful for baseball fans to struggle with the fact that a franchise that has featured Alcantara, Josh Beckett, Kevin Brown, A.J. Burnett, Jose Fernandez, and Dontrelle Willis has so many of their top pitching records claimed by an arm that finished their career well over a 4.00 ERA.

Unfortunately, there isn't much Sandy Alcantara can do about those 81 wins of Nolasco's this season.

However, that doesn't mean that there aren't plenty of other marks that the face of the Marlins franchise can take down by the time the curtain closes on the 2026 season. Most of those marks belong to Miami's puzzling franchise leader. So before Alcantara takes the mound for his own franchise best sixth Opening Day start this weekend (see he's already of Nolasco in something). let's look at some records Alcantara is most likely to topple this year. All of these are assuming health, and are broken into three categories: locks, maybes, and long shot.

Locks: New Miami Marlins Strikeouts, Innings Pitched King

Let's start easy- if the Miami Marlins just get the same Sandy Alcantara they got last season, he will be the new franchise leader in two huge categories.

Strikeouts and innings pitched.

Those 1,001 career Ks of Nolasco's are the bright and shiny one, and the one that Marlins marketing execs will be drooling over in the early going. Innings pitched? That's a fun one for the statheads to be sure. However, the pursuit for that 1,002nd strikeout will be one that fans should start bracing themselves for maximum innings manipulation from the front office to ensure that it happens before a packed loanDepotStadium crowd. Again, he doesn't need to be the 2022 Cy Young version of this to make it happen. Indeed, the more cynical amongst you will probably note that the records are more likely to fall if he isn't- the Marlins are only trading him if he's pitching like an ace for a losing team. They won't sell low, period. All he needs are 81 strikeouts (yes, there's that 81 again) and 158.1 IP to pull that off.

Which means even if he is traded in late July, he'll have more than enough time to get the strikeouts title. Innings pitched? Not impossible to do by the end of July, but that'd likely require August.

Maybes: The Miami Marlins Games Started and Pitching WAR Marks

This slate of Miami Marlins records is tougher to topple but still well in play for falling.

To pull this off, Sandy would need to make 29 starts and record a 5.0 WAR season. That's definitely a tall order, although mostly on account of it necessitating that he stick on the Marlins roster the entire season. If he does though, this isn't out of the question to happen.

Basically, he needs to be at least as good as he was in 2021 but not particularly near his level of 2022 dominance to pull this off.

In terms of recording the requisite number of starts, he's logged at least 28 starts in every season he's played for the Marlins except one, and it was the Covid year where Miami only played sixty games. Even last year, when the team was taking some steps to manage his innings and he struggled for a big chunk of the season, he made 31 starts. So this is another case of all it takes is health/not getting traded to happen.

As for the 5.0 WAR season? It'd be the second best of his career, just edging out the 4.2 WAR he produced for the 2021 team. However, that 2021 team ended up having a lot of issues, and key parts were sold off halfway through the season. If the Marlins are as competitive this year at the deadline as they were last year, that issue should fade away. Meaning a few more wins for Sandy, and a chance of surpassing Josh Johnson's (they aren't all Ricky) 25.8 mark.

Longshot: The Miami Marlins Complete Games Record

Lastly, a Miami Marlins record that would be all but untouchable if Alcantara wasn't on the roster.

Dontrelle Willis holds the belt here with 15 Marlins career complete games, narrowly beating out A.J. Burnett's total of 14. Fitting as those two share the franchise single-season record for shutouts at five a piece.

Sandy comes into 2026 with 12 Marlins complete games...and two shutouts.

The shutouts record is one I'd advise forgetting because as you've probably noticed, pitchers just aren't treated the same way that they used to be by MLB front offices. Jim Leyland and Jack McKeon might make the occasional loanDepot Stadium cameo but they are no longer making Marlins pitching decisions. The very idea of any other Marlins pitcher even approaching 12 complete games seems far fetched in this day and age.

But unicorn that he is, Alcantara has 12 complete games already. So this technically has to be considered as in play. He's had at least 3 complete games this in two of his last three healthy seasons and had 2 of them in 2021.

However, he was also permitted to throw precisely zero of those last season. In fact, he had zero starts of 8 IP. Partly, that was a product of his recovery from Tommy John surgery. Yet the possibility that this just won't be analytically allowed, even for Sandy, has to be acknowledged. As does the possibility that between rule changes and injury to date, he's lost a step on his prior effectiveness.

Again, he's one of one when it comes to the leash he is given late in games. But this seems like a very tall order. Perhaps too tall.

One thing is for sure though. So long as Sandy stays healthy, and stays with the Miami Marlins, Ricky Nolasco's days atop Miami's records books are numbered.