MIAMI — This is why Sandy Alcantara didn’t want to go anywhere.
This night.
This fun.
This full scene after Agustin Ramirez’s hit dribbled six feet in front of home plate Friday night, Xavier Edwards sprinted home from third base and the surprise of baseball delivered their biggest surprise with a 13-12 win against the New York Yankees.
“I wanted to stay here,” the Miami Marlins pitcher said before the game when asked how he felt about not being traded at the Thursday deadline. “I like it here, what’s going on.”
Why he’s still here opposes a common Marlins narrative and tells a larger story, as you’ll see. But do you see why he’s happy to stay in a season like this — on a night like this?
If you can’t believe these Marlins who were once 16 games .500 are just one game below it entering Sunday’s game after a 2-0 win … if you can’t understand how they’re only 6 1/2 games back of a wild-card playoff spot … if you can’t fathom how a team with the lowest payroll in baseball is 29-14 since mid-June … don’t even try to explain one of the wildest nights at loanDepot Park.
“That was definitely the craziest game all season,” manager Clayton McCullough said.
That might undersell it. The Yankees hadn’t lost when scoring 12 runs on the road since 1940. Joe DiMaggio was on that team. So, just maybe, this was the craziest game in 85 seasons.
The Marlins didn’t have a hit until the fifth inning. They trailed 6-0 in the fifth inning. They trailed 9-4 in the seventh inning and came back behind Kyle Stowers’ grand slam and Jakob Marsee’s double in his first big-league game.
They then trailed 12-10 in the ninth inning. And, yes, they came back again to win with Marsee scoring his second run and Edwards scoring the winner.
“We were down six at one point, down five, down two, and we continued to press on,” McCullough said.
It came after the craziest of stretches, too, one that frames this night with the bigger picture being drawn by Peter Bendix, who is responsible for this franchise’s latest rebuild.
Bendix is building a roster, brick by brick. Shortstop Otto Lopez (11 home runs), reliever Ronny Henriquez (2.96 ERA) and left fielder Heriberto Hernandez (.341 batting average) were released by other teams and now have homes in the Marlins lineup.
None are stars. But collectively they show how the roster is better at a cost of nothing.
Stowers is the shining centerpiece of Bendix’s work thus far for obvious reason. He blossomed into an All-Star after being so unsure about even making the team he didn’t find housing in Miami until spring training ended.
But you can’t tell Stowers’ story without also mentioning Connor Norby and Matt Mervis. They tell what’s at work here, too. Norby, who is hurt after a slow season, actually was considered the prime prospect in that trade with Baltimore last summer for pitcher Trevor Rogers.
Mervis, like Stowers, is 27 and showed the Marlins philosophy this season was to find just what they had on the roster by giving everyone a chance. Unlike Stowers, Mervis struggled and was released at the end of May.
So, Bendix is taking his swings. He has a good enough batting average, too, to show he’s brought in more everyday talent in a season-and-a-half than predecessor Derek Jeter did in five years.
It’s too early to judge Bendix’s drafts. But he keeps making moves, the latest being trading centerfielder Jesus Sanchez to Houston.
Sanchez had a mediocre season and was moving beyond the team’s contractual control at the end of his sixth big-league season. The Marlins, too, wanted to see Marsee, who they called up from Triple-A and promptly doubled, walked twice and scored two runs Friday.
“I’ve waited my whole life for this,” Marsee said.
Back to the trade the Marlins didn’t make involving Alcantara. For decades, fans have been understandably upset with the Marlins for trading good players for prospects. Now they’re upset the Marlins didn’t deal more for prospects at Thursday’s trade deadline.
Even Alcantara, who watched the trade rumors right to the 6 p.m. deadline, expected to be traded somewhere for a slice of the Marlins’ tomorrow.
“But I’m happy to still be here,” he said.
Maybe Bendix didn’t get a big offer from a team desperate for pitching. Maybe Alcantara’s back-to-back great starts didn’t soothe all the questions about his recovery this season from Tommy John surgery.
But there’s another delicate aspect to this non-trade. The Marlins rank 29th of the 30 teams with a payroll of $37.9 million for the active roster. They have a league-lowest $66 million for total payroll.
So, the Marlins can’t trade Alcantara’s team-high $17.3 million salary without spending it on someone else or they’d face heavy criticism by revenue-sharing owners, the players’ union and … well, you and me.
This was a case they decided they had to keep a big contract, not trade it as their history has been.
“I don’t want to go anywhere,” Alcantara said.
After this crazy night, maybe there’s a crazier thought: These Marlins keep playing well enough that they’ll want him to stay here no matter what.
