Cy Young

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Lore & Background

He stopped formal education after sixth grade to work on the family farm. He was transferred to the St. After his speed diminished, he relied on control and remained effective into his forties.

Reader's Guide

Cy Young's significance lies in his unparalleled durability and statistical dominance. These records have stood for over a century, reflecting his longevity and consistency. Young led his league in wins five times and pitched three no-hitters, including a perfect game. His nickname originated from the cyclone-like damage his fastball caused to fences. His career spanned the transition from the dead-ball era to modern pitching, and he adapted by adding a changeup (which he called a "slow ball") to reduce arm stress. Young's legacy endures as a benchmark for pitching greatness.

Did You Know?

• Cy Young's nickname came from fences destroyed by his fastball, which looked like a cyclone had hit them.

From a Large Family to the Diamond

Sandy Alcántara Montero entered the world on September 7, 1995, in the small Dominican town of San Juan de la Maguana, where he was one of eleven children. By the age of eleven, his parents made the difficult decision to send him to the capital city of Santo Domingo to live with an older sister, a move designed to let him balance schoolwork with daily baseball practice. That arrangement, however, proved short-lived. Alcántara left formal education after eighth grade, choosing to pour all of his energy into the sport that had consumed him. Four years later, in July 2013, the seventeen-year-old signed with the St. Louis Cardinals as an international free agent, officially launching a professional career that would carry him through the Dominican Summer League, the Gulf Coast League, and multiple Double-A and Triple-A stops before he ever touched a major-league mound. His path from a crowded household in rural Dominican Republic to organized baseball was neither quick nor guaranteed, yet it set the foundation for everything that followed.

The Long Climb Through the Cardinals System

Alcántara's first two professional seasons were defined by volume and learning. In 2014 he logged eleven starts for the Dominican Summer League Cardinals, finishing 1-9 with a 3.97 ERA. The following year brought a 4-4 mark and a 3.22 ERA across twelve starts in the Gulf Coast League. By 2016 he had split time between the Peoria Chiefs and the Palm Beach Cardinals, tying a Chiefs single-game strikeout record with fourteen whiffs in one May start before collecting a combined 5-11 record and 3.96 ERA over twenty-three starts. The 2017 campaign with Springfield Cardinals was his most demanding: one hundred twenty-five and one-third innings, a league-leading twenty wild pitches, and a 7-5 record. On September 1, 2017, the Cardinals finally called him up. After a strong Arizona Fall League showing that earned him a Fall Stars Game selection, the organization traded him to Miami on December 14, 2017, as part of a four-player deal for Marcell Ozuna. His Marlins debut on June 29, 2018, was a five-inning, one-run performance that came with a win over the New York Mets.

All-Star Pedigree and a Unanimous Cy Young

The 2019 season marked Alcántara's first true arrival in the majors. He became the lone Marlins player selected to that year's All-Star Game, where he closed out the eighth inning by retiring the side. Over the full season he logged 197 and one-third innings in thirty-two starts, collecting his first career shutout on May 19—an eighty-nine-pitch, two-hit complete game against the Mets. He also set Marlins franchise records for innings pitched by a rookie and for innings and strikeouts by a Dominican-born pitcher. On November 28, 2021, Miami rewarded him with a fifty-six-million-dollar extension that shattered the previous mark for the largest deal given to a pitcher with fewer than four years of service time. The 2022 campaign was his masterpiece: fourteen wins, a 2.28 ERA, 228 and two-thirds innings, and an 8.0 bWAR that led every pitcher in both leagues. The result was a unanimous National League Cy Young Award, with Max Fried finishing second.

Tommy John, a Brutal Comeback, and the Road Ahead

The 2023 season began as a regression—7-12 with a 4.14 ERA—and ended in surgery. A forearm flexor strain diagnosed in early September revealed a sprained ulnar collateral ligament on MRI. After a brief rehab stint with the Triple-A Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, Alcántara was shut down on September 23 and underwent Tommy John surgery on October 6, sidelining him for all of 2024. His 2025 return was anything but smooth. By the end of May he sat at 2-7, and three consecutive July starts of five or more earned runs pushed his ERA to 7.14, the worst among all active MLB starters at that point. Yet from late August onward he found his rhythm, stringing together three straight seven-inning outings and finishing September at 3-1 to close the year at 11-12. He was a trade candidate all season but remained in Miami. In 2026 he opened the year with a franchise-record sixth Opening Day start, delivering seven shutout innings against Colorado, followed by a complete-game, ten-nothing shutout of Chicago.

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