The Marlins announced to reporters, including Craig Mish of the Miami Herald, they are calling up pitching prospect Eury Pérez. He’ll take the ball for Friday’s game. He’s not currently on the 40-man roster and will require a corresponding move to be added.
Both this move and Pérez himself are unique in a few respects. The promotion is an aggressive one given that the right-hander only just turned 20 years old last month and has yet to pitch in Triple-A. That makes him unusually young for a major league debut, with JJ Cooper of Baseball America pointing out Pérez is about to be the youngest starting pitcher in the majors since Julio Urías in 2016. The pitcher himself is also unique in terms of his size, listed at 6’8″ and 220 pounds.
Signed as an international amateur out of the Dominican Republic in July of 2019, he wasn’t able to make his professional debut until over a year later since the minor leagues were canceled by the pandemic in 2020. The Marlins sent him to Single-A to begin 2021 and he dominated in his 15 starts there. He posted a 1.61 ERA in 56 innings, striking out 36.9% of opponents while walking 9.5% and getting grounders at a 36.4% clip. He was then given the ball for five High-A starts at the end of the year, posting a 2.86 ERA in those.
Going into 2022, he was already considered by many observers to be one of the better pitching prospects in the league, but he continued to raise his stock. Despite just being 19 years old for most of last year, he made 17 starts at the Double-A level. He posted a 4.08 ERA in those along with a 34.1% strikeout rate, 8% walk rate and 41.4% ground ball rate.
Coming into 2023, the youngster was unanimously considered to be one of the best prospects in the league. Baseball America ranked him #7 overall and he’s since moved up to #6. MLB Pipeline had him at #13 and he’s now in the top 10. He was #4 at FanGraphs, #6 at ESPN and Keith Law of The Athletic had him at #10. The reports highlight his fastball, which he can not only ramp up to triple digits but also command exceptionally well. Most observers agree that his changeup is his best secondary pitch, though his slider and curveball both get good reviews as well. By all accounts, Pérez has the ingredients to be a future ace and he keeps proving it. Through his six Double-A starts this year, he has a 2.32 ERA, 35.9% strikeout rate, 7.7% walk rate and 51.6% ground ball rate.
That being said, not all prospects hit the ground running as soon as they reach the majors and it’s not something that should be expected for even the top names. That’s especially true for Pérez given his youth and relative inexperience. His entire professional track record consists of just 186 innings at this point, including just 77 last year, and none of that was at Triple-A. He’s yet to truly test his stuff against big league caliber hitters and it remains to be seen how many innings the Marlins will let him rack up this year. Nonetheless, it will be very exciting to see how the gamble pays off for them.
The club has had a strong rotation for many years and felt good enough about their options that they traded Pablo López to the Twins this winter in order to obtain Luis Arraez. However, they’ve been dealing with a few challenges this year, as both Trevor Rogers and Johnny Cueto are on the injured list with uncertain return timelines. Jesús Luzardo is having a nice season so far but Sandy Alcantara hasn’t quite been his Cy Young self, while Braxton Garrett and Edward Cabrera have each posted middling results so far.
Pérez will now step into that mix and see how he fares, with his performance likely to have some impact on whether this is a brief cup of coffee or if he’s up for good. Since the season is over a month old at this point, Pérez won’t be able to accrue a full year of service time the old fashioned way, though the new collective bargaining agreement affords him a path to get there. A player with less than 60 days of service time who is on two of the top 100 prospect lists at BA, MLB or ESPN will get a full year of service, regardless of the time they spend on the roster, if they finish in the top two in Rookie of the Year voting. Pérez was on all three of those lists and is therefore eligible, but it will be a challenge to rank that highly given the late start. He’ll be competing with players like Corbin Carroll and James Outman who have already had plenty of time to bank stats this year.
Even if he finished the year shy of the one-year mark, his youth would still put him on a good trajectory. If he’s up for good, he would almost certainly qualify for arbitration as a Super Two player after the 2025 campaign and be on pace for free agency after 2029, which would be his age-26 season. Future optional assignments could push those targets further into the future, though he could also reach free agency after 2028 by succeeding in getting that full year here in 2023.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
They’re calling up a 32 year old outfielder to pitch? Or is that the wrong link?
Wrong link, he’s the #10 prospect in baseball
wrong link, they meant baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=per…
Awesome! Good luck Eury.
Over under 1 1/5 years to tommy John surgery? I’ll take the under all day.
Is that One and One/Fifth years, 11 over 5 or 11.5?
I’ll take the under on you passing math class
Think he meant one hunnit n fiddy
I hope this isnt a rush job, as typical of them in the past, but they desperately need help from their young guys in the rotation since all their supposed depth has been depleted by injury and ineffectiveness/dropoff, as predicted
Definitely going to try to make it down to Marlins Park for this, but they made it so much unnecessarily harder since they made the game times 30 minutes earlier a couple of years ago
I understand from a control perspective why they traded Pablo but he was so consistent and genuinely one of the more underrated pitchers for the entirety of his Marlins tenure. I can only assume the Twins thought the same and were hard lining Pablo as their guy vs one of the less proven cost controlled guys
I thought they could extend him to something similar to what he ended up doing. I also thought that if they were to trade him especially, they should have got a better return, but it’s far from the first time all these things have gone around
Months sooner than I expected.
He has pitched in double a all last year and this year.
I’m sure they meant hasn’t pitched in Triple A…
I think the author meant to say he has yet to pitch above Double A yet.
But they don’t proofread anything so are we surprised there’s countless errors in everything they post?
They rely on our crack commenter staff.
Pay for access and then maybe you have a license to complain. Until that icon is next to your name, your complaints will fall on deaf ears.
They also used the word ‘unique’ to describe events that have happened before, making the use inappropriate. But I prefer reading the musings of baseball fans rather than English majors.
Elvis Luciano 19 years 224 days in 2019 was younger than Urias at time of debut by days.
So Eury will be the youngest since Luciano
Luciano didn’t start a game.
Luciano was used as a reliever that year. Most of his experience in the minors was as a starter, but he didn’t make a start for the Blue Jays in 2019. Eury is the announced starting pitcher Friday.
“Has yet to pitch at the Double-A level”
TWO paragraphs down: “made 17 starts at the double-A level”
Literally ever article on this site is littered with errors and has been for MONTHS. Do you guys proofread anything?? Get it together!
Ask for a refund, rols.
So you can only criticize things you pay for. Excellent logic. NOT!
It is a free site that one can choose to donate to or not.
Granted, typos and errors are somewhat annoying, however, there are enough individuals on here, that are on top of their research game, to make corrections, on the fly.
So, yes you can complain but it would be more productive to send an email, to the authors, in a professional manner and also to give, an adequate amount of time, for corrections
I suppose some people just like to complain? Anyhow, it would seem the story has been proofread. I think they like to get the story out “first” and then they (obviously) do take the time to make minor corrections. Either way, ask for a refund, rols. 😉
Lol imagine defending them publishing articles BEFORE proofreading and making corrections. That’s your take? Seriously? Yikes Gwynn…
There’s no point to emailing to point out errors. You’d be sending multiple emails after every article. Much more efficient to tell them to just proofread their own articles before clicking submit…. Pretty simple and easy request…. It’s literally their job… no other sites are like this. Even the bots on espn aren’t this bad…
rols,
There certainly are errors, but you’re being hyperbolic to say every article has multiple errors.
And yes, other sites have plenty of errors errors. Check out RotoGraphs.
Get a distemper shot.
On me, rols.
*There’s no point to emailing to point out errors.”
But there is a total point to bleating like a sheep stuck on a barbed-wire fence to everybody in cyberspace.
Got it.
You never sent a text or email that had a small error? Same thing, but here they have the luxury of editing after assessing the story more. Your annoyance at a slight malfeasance that will be adjusted is funny, but hey buddy, you be you rols.
rols,
You used four periods at the end of your sentences multiple times, failed to capitalize “no” in your second-to-last sentence, and also failed to capitalize “espn.”
Pretty simple and easy to avoid such errors.
rols even had the luxury of an edit button, but alas… I suppose there’s no point emailing him as we’d be doing it multiple times per rant.
“Don’t sweat the small stuff.”
In a nutshell, THAT’S his take, rols.
Seriously.
Meanwhile, DreamGM is still ogling the centerfold. Winning!
Hey gbs, did you seriously just compare their mistakes in their articles that they are PAID to write and review to mistakes in my comment? That aren’t even mistakes because it’s a comment board and not a written article? I’m not being paid to relay info to people? Geez, you can always count on the low IQ people to show up any time you point out errors.
So every author here needs to be perfect in their punctuation, prose and phrasing on the first take… but not you? If you practice what you’re trying to preach rols, maybe then people could take you halfway seriously. Is the article not amended to your standards now? Why are you still crying? Do you want a tissue for your issue?
Sounds like he has a lifetime subscription of issues..
rols, my IQ is high enough to realize a mistake is a mistake regardless of where it’s written or by whom.
So you can only criticize things you pay for.
==========================
A little bit, yes. My daughter had a poor B-ball coach in the 3rd grade. But my two choices were that I volunteer, or I stay silent.
I don’t read the articles anyways. I just look at the pin-ups.
I like the huge centerfields!
Va va vavoom.
rols1026, You said “ever” article when you meant to say “every” article, and here you’re complaining about errors and lack of proofreading. Lol.
Great, another pitcher that will get injured because democrats are running the sport. They need a safe space if a guy throws beyond 90 pitches
The most out of leftfield comment of the day.
Congratulations!
Better send out the trainer. Fernando Tatis may have broken a nail sliding into third base
Oh, Acuna got hit in the shoulder with a pitch. Time to roll around on the ground in agony for five minutes then come out of the game
Game is a joke now
Fernando’s nail salon lady makes more than you do, cammy. Sorry.
Camden, who hurt you? Do you need a safe space to reveal the hurt beneath your anger?
Hope this works out as well as JF16 did when he was called up at a young age.
Got our tickets. Love seeing premiers like this.
I proofread.
Bottles of Bacardi.
“Hmm… 80,80,80…151-BINGO! That’s the one!”
The errors give this site its charm, I find it entertaining. If I really need the most accurate, up-to-date information, I go to the fridge, crack open a beer and move on with my life…
This team is actually pretty decent. Glad they are trying to improve. They could have kept him down but he has 0.80 whip. He seems too good to be in AA. The sooner he gets experience the quicker he will be an impactful player. You usually lose something by calling a guy up this early. He could be a very young free agent. But if they are dominating the minors it’s the right thing to do. They are getting close to contention and it will help to have an idea of what the young players can do in MLB. Marlins should aim to lock these guys up early. Especially given their history of trading every good player that came out of their system. The fans in Miami have witnessed enough losing and selloffs. Time to field a successful team long term.
Had to go on the 40-man roster this coming offseason anyway.
Its time