The price is dropping on Dodgers' dream trade deadline deal

Months before the 2025 season even started, MLB Network's Greg Amsinger renewed the conversation about the Los Angeles Dodgers and Miami Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara, with a way-too-early trade deadline prediction.

The Dodgers have never been directly linked to Alcantara, who was to the 2022-23 offseason what Garrett Crochet was to the 2024 trade deadline (which is to say, the belle of the ball), but the match always made some sense for the aggressive and injury-plagued Dodgers. The Dodgers like to add stars, and Alcantara won a Cy Young in 2022. The Marlins are bad and have no use for somebody of this caliber.

It's a good thing that nothing ever came of the speculation in 2023 and Alcantara stayed put in Miami, because he underwent Tommy John surgery in October that year (which probably had something to do with the nine complete games he'd thrown in the last two seasons) and missed the entirety of 2024.

This year, the Dodgers are already without one of their starters indefinitely. Blake Snell hit the IL after two starts and doesn't have a timeline to return. So, if the Dodgers are indeed seriously interested in Alcantara, then it doesn't look like it'll be nearly as hard to get him at this year's trade deadline as it was in 2023. Through five starts and 23 1/3 innings, he has a 6.56 ERA.

Dodgers could get Sandy Alcantara for a song as he struggles with Marlins

Alcantara still wouldn't be a terribly easy get — he'll continued to be regarded as a top arm, and the Marlins would cite his Cy Young in order to get his price as high as it can possibly go. But if he has a 6.00+ ERA by the trade deadline, it's going to be really hard for the Marlins to ask for much.

After the Dodgers signed Snell, Andrew Friedman said LA loaded up on pitching depth because they were naive to believe that they had enough last year. Through just over 25 games this year, they've basically already blown through that depth. On top of Snell's absence, the three young replacements the Dodgers called up in the interim have all been unimpressive.

Alcantara would be a still worrisome option — do the Dodgers really want to take on another starting pitcher with a recent history of injury, who hasn't been performing well? — but LA's pitching coaches should not be underestimated. It'd be incredibly characteristic for them to trade for a struggling but formerly great starter and get him right back to winning form. That could be Alcantara.