Can Sandy Alcantara get back on track after return from surgery?

After missing all of last season while rehabbing from surgery, Alcantara hit the ground running in spring training. He flashed his Cy Young form early and quickly got back to throwing heat, hitting 99.3 mph on his fastball in February.

Alcantara’s first two starts of the regular season went well. He picked up a win and a no-decision while allowing four runs in 9.2 innings. However, the veteran righty has hit a rough patch in his last two starts as he’s given up 10 runs in just 7.2 innings

Despite the poor showing Friday, Alcantara once again had good velocity and he consistently threw strikes, often getting ahead of batters. However, he failed to capitalize on favorable counts and he needed 61 pitches to complete two innings. It was the second-shortest start of his eight-year career, according to Paul Casella of MLB.com.

Alcantara is considered the premier trade target for teams in need of starting pitching this season. The only problem is the Marlins haven’t decided if they intend to trade him yet.

Still, Alcantara is by far the highest-paid Marlins player and given the team’s bargain-basement payroll and history of developing and dealing successful players for prospects, it’s likely Alcantara is pitching elsewhere at some point this season.

The Marlins have reached the playoffs twice in the last 21 seasons with one Wild Card series victory in that time.