Eury Perez is returning to the Miami Marlins rotation. A look at the plan moving forward
Eury Perez’s return to the big leagues is here.
The Miami Marlins are bringing the 20-year-old right-handed pitcher phenom back to the active roster. Perez is anticipated to start on Monday against the Cincinnati Reds, Marlins general manager Kim Ng said Sunday. The Marlins have not yet added Perez to the active roster.
Perez’s insertion into the rotation pushes the rest of the starters back one day. Braxton Garrett is now set to pitch Tuesday against the Reds, with Johnny Cueto scheduled for the series finale with Cincinnati on Wednesday.
The move comes with the Marlins still in the thick of a push for a playoff spot. After Sunday’s 6-0 loss to the Texas Rangers, the Marlins are 5-16 in their first 21 games since the All-Star Break yet still remain within a half-game of a wild card spot.
“With him, there’s this exuberance and personality when you see him and it’s a lot of fun for him to be around,” Ng said. “I think the other guys enjoy it as well. In terms of the timing, this was really just sort of the way we had sketched it out.”
Perez excelled in his first stint with the Marlins, pitching to a 2.36 ERA with 61 strikeouts against 17 walks over 53 1/3 innings through 11 starts. Six of the 14 earned runs he allowed came in one outing — a dud against the Atlanta Braves on July 1 in which he recorded just one out. Remove that outing, and Perez held opponents to eight earned runs in 53 innings — a 1.36 ERA.
The Marlins optioned him back to the minor leagues on July 7 in an attempt to monitor his innings. Prior to this season, Perez had never thrown more than 78 innings in a season with the organization. At that point, he was already at 84 1/3 total innings between MLB and the minor-leagues.
Ng said last week the team was “creating a path” for his eventual return to the big-league club. After going 20 days between starts, Perez made two starts with Double A Pensacola, throwing 45 pitches on July 26 and 63 pitches on Tuesday over a combined 5 2/3 innings to bring his season total to 90 innings pitched.
“We had this fairly mapped out,” Ng said. “I talked about him doing a combo of workouts, bullpens, getting him back into competition. ... We wanted to give him a little breather, which we’ve done. We just felt like this was a good time.”
Having him start Monday gives the Marlins an avenue to continue doing that while allowing him to help the club push for a playoff spot.
With the way the Marlins’ next five off days are positions — Thursday, Aug. 17, Aug. 24, Aug. 28 and Sept. 4 — Miami is able to give Perez an extra day of rest in between starts for his first six turns through the rotation.
If Perez starts every five games, beginning Monday with the Reds, here’s how his schedule would look through the end of the regular season:
▪ Monday at the Reds (five days rest)
▪ Sunday against the New York Yankees (five days rest)
▪ Aug. 19 at the Los Angeles Dodgers (five days rest)
▪ Aug. 25 at home against the Washington Nationals (five days rest)
▪ Aug. 31 at the Nationals (five days rest)
▪ Sept. 6 at home against the Dodgers (five days rest)
▪ Sept. 11 at the Milwaukee Brewers (four days rest)
▪ Sept. 16 at home against the Atlanta (four days rest)
▪ Sept. 22 at home against the Milwaukee (five days rest)
▪ Sept. 28 at the New York Mets (five days rest)
That’s 10 starts, with an extra day of rest for eight of the 10 starts.
“That did play some factor into it,” Ng said.
From there, the question becomes whether the Marlins will have Perez make all 10 of those starts. Remember, he has already exceeded his previous career high in innings pitched. Ng was non-committal to that.
Even if Perez is limited to no more than five innings per start, that’s a potential of up to 50 innings over this stretch just to get through the regular season.
On top of the 90 innings he has already pitched, that could bring Perez’s total this season to as high as 140 innings — 15 innings shy of doubling what he pitched in the 2021 and 2022 seasons combined (78 innings in 2021, 77 innings in 2022).
“As we’ve tried to do for most of the year is just monitor him and be super cautious,” Ng said. “Obviously this is about his future and making sure that we really don’t jeopardize that.”
This story was originally published August 6, 2023 at 11:47 AM.
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