Miami Marlins’ Sandy Alcantara finally gets his Cy Young plaque. This one has no typos
Sandy #Sandy
Miami Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara finally has his Cy Young Award plaque.
The Marlins surprised Alcantara with the plaque Sunday before their first home spring training game against the St. Louis Cardinals at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium. Marlins chairman and principal owner Bruce Sherman gave Alcantara the award prior to the game’s first pitch as the teams lined up along the first- and third-base lines.
This pseudo-ceremony came almost a month to the day after Alcantara was originally honored at the Baseball Writers Association of America’s annual dinner in New York on Jan. 28. The 27-year-old right-handed pitcher is the first in Marlins history to win the National League Cy Young Award and the first NL pitcher to win the award in unanimous fashion since the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw in 2014.
However, the Cy Young Award plaques were not ready in time for the dinner, so Alcantara and Justin Verlander (the American League Cy Young Award winner) were each presented with a dummy plaque to hold while they made their speech.
That plaque, however, had a misprint. The inscription on the award recognized the “most valuble pitcher” in baseball instead of the “most valuable pitcher.”
The inscription on the award Sandy received Sunday: “Presented to Sandy Alcantara the outstanding National League pitcher 2022”
Alcantara earlier this month said he noticed the typo as soon as he got the award but didn’t want to make a big deal about it during the ceremony.
“When I got there and they put [the award] in my hand, I saw it,” Alcantara said on Feb. 7. “I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want it to be like ‘Ah, Sandy’s saying something.’ But people saw it and they starting doing something funny on [social] media.”
Alcantara last season led MLB in innings pitched (228 2/3) and complete games (six) and worked at least eight innings in 14 of his starts — the most by any MLB pitcher since 2014. Alcantara’s 2.28 ERA was the second-lowest in Marlins’ history (behind Kevin Brown’s 1.89 in 1996) and in the National League in 2022 (behind Julio Urias’ 2.16). He held opponents to two earned runs or fewer in 25 of his 32 starts.
He went on a run of 13 consecutive starts with at least seven innings pitched heading into the All-Star Break and gave up no more than two earned runs in 12 of those outings. Eight of those 13 games came against teams that made the postseason: three against the Mets, two against the Braves, two against the Phillies and one against the Cardinals.
©2023 Miami Herald. Visit miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.