Miami Marlins, Sandy Alcantara closing in on contract extension. Details, where things stand

Sandy Alcantara’s contract extension with the Miami Marlins is all but official.

Sources told the Miami Herald on Sunday the Marlins and Alcantara are in agreement on a five-year, $56 million contract extension. The deal is pending a physical, although club has not confirmed yet.

As part of the deal, which also includes a $21 million option for a sixth year, Alcantara will receive a $1.5 million signing bonus, and the team holds a $2 million buyout in Year 5, according to sources.

The deal will buy out Alcantara’s three years of arbitration and up to three years of free agency should the sixth-year option be picked up. It would be the largest deal both in terms of years and total value under the Bruce Sherman and Derek Jeter ownership group.

The contract, negotiated by CAA Sports, is the largest in MLB history for a pitcher with three arbitration years remaining on the player’s rookie contract.

Alcantara, 26, is coming off a career year. He had a single-season best 205 2/3 innings pitched and 201 strikeouts — just the fifth pitcher in Marlins history to hit 200 innings and 200 strikeouts in the same season — while pitching to a 3.19 ERA over 33 starts.

He was one of four pitchers to throw at least 200 innings in 2021, trailing only the Phillies’ Zach Wheeler, the Dodgers’ Walker Buehler and the Cardinals’ Adam Wainwright.

It follows his All-Star season in 2019 in which he threw 197 1/3 innings and posted a 3.88 ERA and the abbreviated 2020 season in which he pitched to a 3.00 ERA with 39 strikeouts over 42 innings while making seven starts.

“They know what I did this year,” Alcantara said last week. “They know what I did last year, too. They know I have a lot of talent. They know I can be here, keep doing my job and keep competing.”

This deal allows Alcantara to continue to be the Marlins’ ace for years to come and lead a young-yet-talent rotation that could include any combination of 2021 Rookie of the Year runner-up Trevor Rogers, Pablo Lopez, Jesus Luzardo, Elieser Hernandez, and top prospects Sixto Sanchez and Edward Cabrera — and that’s not to mention the next wave of pitchers on the way led by 2020 first-round draft pick Max Meyer.