The 2025 trade deadline was shaping up to be a high-stakes bidding war for Sandy Alcantara, but the Miami Marlins’ right-hander hasn’t held up his end of the bargain.
Through seven starts, Alcantara has an 8.42 ERA and -0.7 bWAR in his return from Tommy John surgery. Even though he’s still throwing in the upper nineties, he’s getting torched to the tune of a .645 slugging percentage on his heater.
The Atlanta Braves, one of the Marlins’ division rivals, are one of the teams who could be in the market for starting pitching, and by extension, Alcantara. Has this slow start scared them off? Or is it simply helping lower the price?
One baseball writer still believes the Braves will be in play for the Marlins, and came up with a trade idea that would ship a fairly impressive haul to Miami for the 2022 Cy Young Award winner.
On Wednesday, Nick Halden of FanSided proposed that the Braves could send right-handed pitcher Owen Murphy, shortstop Nacho Alvarez Jr., and outfielder Jarred Kelenic to the Marlins for Alcantara.
“The Braves send two top prospects and their biggest current problem in Kelenic, in exchange for Miami’s biggest trade chip. It is fun to consider the ceiling of Atlanta’s rotation if they were able to pull off such a deal,” Halden wrote.
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“Atlanta is under pressure to make notable additions and prove they haven’t lost the team’s World Series window… With this in mind, such a deal could become a possibility for a franchise that typically shies away from spending prospects of note.”
Murphy was the Braves’ 2022 first-round pick, but he’s missing the season due to his own Tommy John procedure. Alvarez is having a strong start to the season at Triple-A, though, and could slot in quickly as an option for Miami at shortstop or second base.
It’s a hefty price to give up for a pitcher struggling the way Alcantara is, but a lot could change in the next two months.
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