Marlins’ Eury Perez embraces his nickname. Can he live up to the hype that comes with it?
The Miami Marlins wore T-shirts with the phrase and a cartoon depiction of its meaning emblazoned on it, a sign of support for Eury Perez similar to ones they have done for Sandy Alcantara and Luis Arraez and Jorge Soler before him.
Perez has the words etched on his glove, a daily reminder of the high expectations that have been set — both internally and externally.
Practically since he made his long-awaited MLB debut as a top pitching prospect in 2023, Perez has been deemed the “Baby GOAT” — “GOAT” being an acronym for “Greatest Of All Time.”
Perez has never shied away from the moniker. He has embraced it.
“No pressure,” Perez said.
But he knows he still needs to prove he can live up to it.
Perez’s talent is undeniable. He was a top-15 prospect for a reason. He’s 6-8, throws a mean fastball and has secondary offerings that create an arsenal that can be among the best in baseball if honed properly.
Now, it’s a matter of putting all he has to offer together over the course of an entire season — something he hasn’t been able to do at the big-league level since making his MLB debut in May 2023. He made 19 starts as a rookie, with the Marlins limiting his pitch count early \as the then-20-year-old learned to pitch deeper into a season. He then missed all the 2024 campaign and the start of 2025 while rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. He ultimately made 20 starts last season but showed rust and inconsistency at times that is expected after a long layoff.
The injury is behind him. The experience is carrying over. Perez is expected to take on a heavy load for the Marlins in 2026 as the de facto No. 2 in the rotation behind Sandy Alcantara, the Marlins’ ace and Perez’s mentor.
And he’s ready for what’s to come.
“Last year, I gained a lot of experience,” Perez said, “and I want to transfer that knowledge to this year.”
There are two key areas of Perez’s game where he seeks improvement this season, and they go hand in hand.
The first is pitching deeper into games. Just 11 of his 39 career starts — 28.2% — have gone at least six innings. He has completed seven innings just once. His 17.55 pitches thrown per-inning average last season were the most among the Marlins’ regular starting pitchers and would have ranked as the second most among qualifying starting pitchers across MLB had he thrown enough innings (Perez threw just 95 1/3 innings over his 20 starts. His swing-and-miss rate dropped considerably last season, from 33.7% as a rookie in 2023 to 28.4% in 2024. Opponents chased fewer pitches outside of the zone (28.4% in 2025 compared to 31% in 2023) and made more contact with those chased pitches (51.1% in 2025 compared to 43.9%).
How he improves upon that comes with the second area, which is expanding his arsenal. His fastball, which averages 97.8 mph and has some of the highest spin rates (which adds deception and should increase swing-and-miss potential) across baseball for the pitch, he needs to be comfortable throwing other pitches in all situations.
Perez mentioned early in spring training that he worked on improving his changeup and sweeper, pitches he threw just 7.8% and 7.7% of the time last season but were effective in small sample sizes. His changeup had a 61.1% whiff rate and opponents had just one hit off it while striking out 10 times in 15 plate appearances that ended with that pitch. The sweeper, a pitch he added last season, had a 46.4% whiff rate and opponents went just 4 for 24 (.167 batting average) with 11 strikeouts against.
Perez also has a slider and curveball at his disposal.
“What was great last year was the trust and confidence he gained in expanding his arsenal,” Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said. “The fastball is a unicorn heater — the extension, the velocity. That’s always going to be there. It was getting the ball to be able to turn left more consistently and miss some bats that way when he’s ahead and also be able to strike with something other than the heater. He committed to that. So I think now this year is continuing to build off of that. I think now he’s coming off at least where he got to make quite a number of starts for us. So the health part, you feel good about. He’s out of the rehab-type mode. Now it’s navigating through lineups and continuing to try to cut down some of the deep counts and the foul balls that jacked up his pitch count last year. Finishing at-bats sooner and giving the ability to get deeper into games.”
But beyond his physical talent, Perez’s success will come down to how much he trusts himself to execute. He was tentative at times last season coming back from his elbow injury.
“It’s a matter of knowing what you can do,” Perez said.
Perez knows what he has to do. He knows how he has to attack his preparation. He’s not focused on individual statistics. The results that matter are the wins and being on the mound with the ball in his right hand every five games.
His only true goal for the 2026 season?
“Start the year with the big-league team,” Perez said, “and finish the year with the big-league team.”
If he does that, 2026 very well might be the year of the Baby GOAT.
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