Another Marlins’ ace in the making? Sandy Alcantara sees the qualities in Edward Cabrera

The Miami Marlins pitcher, a flamethrowing righty from the Dominican Republic, makes his way to the dugout after a dominant eighth inning. He’s on cruise control, three outs away from a shutout with his performance getting stronger as the game gets to its later stages. All of his pitches are working. He’s feeling good, ready to plead his case to take the mound one more time and finish the job he started even though, like it or not, the decision has already been made.

No, in this instance, we’re not talking about Sandy Alcantara, the ace of the staff and a leading contender for the National League Cy Young Award this season.

In this instance, we’re talking about Alcantara’s protege Edward Cabrera as his incredible run in August continues.

Cabrera’s final line on Monday in a 3-0 win over the Oakland Athletics at RingCentral Coliseum: Eight shutout innings with two hits and three walks allowed while striking out seven.

He has now thrown 22 2/3 shutout innings over four starts since his return from a nearly two month injured list due to right elbow tendonitis.

“One hundred percent confidence level right now,” Cabrera said. “Things are coming out the right way. I trust myself. I trust my pitches.”

Alcantara, who quickly took Cabrera under his wings last season when Cabrera made his MLB debut, could only smile as he thought about Cabrera’s evolution.

Alcantara also couldn’t deny the similarities being presented between Cabrera’s current rise and the one he starting making not too long ago.

“I think he’s me when I was here for the first time,” the Marlins’ ace said of his mentee. “He’s competing to stay here and it’s great.”

The similarities

While Cabrera isn’t on Alcantara’s level yet, the similar trajectory is noticeable.

▪ Like Alcantara, he showed promise in the minor leagues with his high velocity and the potential to have multiple elite pitches.

Cabrera utilizes two fastballs — a four-seam and a sinker — that both hit the upper 90s to go along with a changeup, slider and curveball. Alcantara used the same pitch mix to begin his career but has more or less moved away from the curveball the past two years.

▪ Like Alcantara, he went through his lumps during his first taste of the big leagues. Alcantara pitched to a 3.61 ERA over his first two abbreviated MLB stints — eight relief appearances with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2017 and six starts with the Marlins in 2018 after being acquired in the Marcell Ozuna trade — and walked more than 15 percent of the batters he faced in that span.

Cabrera quickly showcased his potential in his debut on Aug. 25, 2021, when he held the Washington Nationals to three runs over 6 1/3 innings — with all the damage coming on a pair of home runs in his final inning — but never made it further than four innings in any of his other six starts and ended the year with a 5.81 ERA over 26 1/3 innings.

“Last year he came here and he was OK,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “Yes, he had a couple of good outings. The rest of them were not great. Those are good learning experiences. He came back more confident.”

Marlins’ Edward Cabrera ‘earned the right to come here.’ He showed promise in MLB debut

▪ And like Alcantara, he is showing a jump in production after taking those lumps. Alcantara earned his first All-Star Game nod in 2019 and has since gone on to become the team’s Opening Day starter each of the past three seasons and is becoming a household name in the league.

Cabrera has allowed just six runs all season through his seven MLB starts in 2022. Five of those six runs came in a 3 2/3-inning performance vs the Astros before going on the IL with the elbow injury. Remove that game, and Cabrera has allowed just one earned run in 34 2/3 innings — a 0.26 ERA.

He is the first pitcher this season and first ever in Marlins history with four consecutive scoreless starts while pitching a minimum of four innings in each outing. He is only the 16th pitcher since 2000 to do so with all of the starts coming in the same season. Of the other 15, only three pitchers have had a longer streak: Zack Greinke had six consecutive starts in 2015, Ryan Dempster five in 2012 and Brandon Webb five in 2007.

“He was always a guy that had electric stuff but didn’t really know how to use it correctly,” said Nick Fortes, who has caught Cabrera since 2018. “He kind of sprayed a little bit, a lot of walks. Now, he’s able to get everything in the zone and read swings and dissect which pitch would be good in which situation rather than just throwing it aimlessly. He’s gotten a lot better at that.”

Following in Sandy Alcantara’s footsteps

Cabrera doesn’t take his connection with Alcantara for granted. He’s constantly picking Alcantara’s brain, trying to get any advice he can from a pitcher who was in his situation not too long ago.

The biggest piece of advice Cabrera said he has received from Alcantara: Stay strong every day.

“He’s a guy that has amazing discipline and I see him working every day,” Cabrera said. “He’s very strong because of that. I try to mimic and follow those steps.”

He did his best Alcantara impression to date on Monday against Oakland. Cabrera worked out of a pair of jams in the first and third innings before settling in. He retired the final 14 batters he faced, getting five of his seven strikeouts on the night in that span.

Cabrera made his way back to the dugout after the eighth inning, ready to plead his case to go back to the mound and attempt to finish off his first career shutout.

It didn’t work. Mattingly and pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr. had already made up their minds. Cabrera had already thrown 101 pitches, a career-high for him in a big-league game. With the rest of this season focused on development, Mattingly wasn’t taking any chances with a pitcher who is key to the club’s future.

“We’ve talked about him being hungry, but this is at a point in our season to where it’s at where it’s at,” Mattingly said. “We’re not gonna let guys go out and hurt themselves. ... As a manager, you’ve got to make sure you’re not letting the guy do something just because he wants to and the situation puts him at risk in our mind of injury.”

Room for growth

So what’s next for Cabrera?

Two things in particular stand out.

First and foremost, he has to stay healthy. Cabrera has had his share of injuries over the past few years. He had right biceps muscle fatigue in spring training and had the elbow injury this year. He also dealt with an inflamed nerve in his right biceps in spring training last year and a blister shortly after making his MLB debut.

“Seems like the last couple of years he hasn’t been able to get out of the gates,” Mattingly said.

From there, it’s the preparation between starts. How he approaches the four days between his time on the mound, Mattingly said, is “what’s going to make him either really good or just OK.”

“There’s a lot of guys with stuff just like his,” Mattingly said. “If he doesn’t work, he’ll be pretty good just like that, but if he wants to be anything better than that and wants to be more, it’s his work that’s gonna really take him.”