Injured Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara took a major step forward in his rehab from Tommy John surgery today, as The Miami Herald’s Jordan McPherson notes that the right-hander played catch this afternoon, marking the first time he’s thrown a baseball since going under the knife back in October. While that still leaves Alcantara a long way from a return to the mound, manager Skip Schumaker seemed optimistic regarding the 28-year-old’s rehab process as he noted to reporters that Alcantara is “probably three or four weeks ahead of schedule.”
Even with Alcantara potentially as much as a month ahead of schedule, it’s still all but guaranteed that he won’t pitch in the majors during the 2024 season. While he first went on the shelf on September 6 with a flexor strain, he wasn’t diagnosed with a UCL sprain until the following week and was only shut down for the season on September 23 before undergoing surgery shortly thereafter. Even the most favorable estimates for a return to the mound following Tommy John surgery require at least a year of rehab, and it seems unlikely that the Marlins would have any interest in rushing Alcantara back to the mound. While the right-hander had a down season in 2023 with a rather pedestrian 4.14 ERA in 28 starts, his incredible 2022 campaign saw him post a sterling 2.28 ERA with a 2.99 FIP while leading the majors with 228 1/3 innings pitched.
While Alcantara being ahead of schedule won’t have an impact on the Marlins in 2024, it’s a positive sign for his odds of being ready to pitch come Opening Day 2025. In the meantime, the club figures to rely on the likes of Eury Perez, Jesus Luzardo, Braxton Garrett, Trevor Rogers and Edward Cabrera in 2024. The Marlins reportedly fielded trade offers on some of their young rotation arms this winter, and while a deal didn’t ultimately come together, it remains at least possible that the club will ship one or more pitchers out from its rotation mix before Alcantara returns to the mound in 2025, whether that be ahead of this summer’s trade deadline or at some point next offseason.
More from around the NL East…
- Nationals center fielder Victor Robles left today’s game early due to hamstring tightness, as noted by MASN’s Bobby Blanco. Manager Dave Martinez told reporters (including Blanco) after the game that Robles was dealing with a “knot” in his hamstring after being hit by a pitch in that area during a game against the Marlins earlier this week. Robles, 27 in May, was once a consensus top-5 prospect in the entire sport but has struggled to establish himself at the big league level. He was off to a hot start last year before his 2023 campaign was cut short by injury, leaving him to appear in just 36 games all season. Headed into 2024, Robles appears to be the favorite for regular reps in center field, though Martinez suggested previously that 24-year-old rookie Jacob Young would have the opportunity to earn playing time in center.
- Mets manager Carlos Mendoza indicated to reporters, including Andrew Crane of the New York Post, recently that infielder Jeff McNeil remains at least a week away from receiving any sort of game action this spring. McNeil suffered a partially torn UCL in his left arm back in September and spent the offseason rehabbing the injury, which has caused the club to proceed with caution regarding a bout of left biceps soreness that first cropped up last week, though McNeil had already not appeared in Grapefruit League games yet since camp opened last month. That said, Crane adds that McNeil made some progress recently when he took dry swings early today without any pain in his biceps. Once healthy, McNeil will look to rebound as the Mets’ starting second baseman in 2024 on the heels of a 2023 campaign that saw the two-time All Star slash a pedestrian .270/.333/.378 in 648 trips to the plate.
MLB Top 100 Commenter
Why not give Jacob Young a chance to start in CF before Woods and crews get called up?
LFGMets (Metsin7) #ConsistentlyBannedBaseballExpert
@MannyBeingMVP These GMs never want to admit that they were wrong. Rizzo has been there for forever. He wants to prove to eveyone that he was right about Victor Robles. The Braves did the right thing with a similar player in Christian Pache. Good orgs know when its time to cut the line
Oldguy58
You are correct. Some GMs are afraid guys will then go elsewhere and be successful. The good ones don’t worry about that and they focus on their teams success.
Baseball Babe
Well I think Rizzo has been a “pretty good one”. He built the Nats into a perennial contender and arguably the best team of the 2010s. They won the World Series in’19 with their third or fourth best team of the decade — and they’re well along a rebuild that’s going to see the next wave of Nats stars begin graduating ti the big leagues this season and the last couple of bad contracts are close to going away, freeing up their ability to spend next offseason. Has he given Robles more chances than most players? Yes, but the tools are so amazing that you all but have to. Pache was never as highly regarded as Robles once was.
ChetLemonaid
That’s a great comp, IMO. Pache and Acuna were supposed to be 2/3 of their outfield for a decade. Pache just never hit. Hos stock dipped before they traded him, but they didn’t wait for it to bottom out.
Armaments216
The difference of course being that Pache was on a contending team. There’s really no point for the 2024 Nats to optimize CF to add a few more wins. Their best move is to allow Robles the chance to demonstrate enough value to bring some sort of return at the trade deadline.
TheFuzzofKing
Seems clear cut: Young is a worse hitter and it really doesn’t matter who plays center for them in a year when they’re winning maybe 70 games.
Besides, Young will get his chance when Robles is inevitably injured for a spell (the chance may have just arrived).
outinleftfield
Mcneil being injured may be the biggest loss for the Mets to start the season.