The Marlins are optioning right-hander Eury Pérez to the minor leagues, per Craig Mish of the Miami Herald. It might seem like a strange decision at first blush since the rookie has an excellent 2.36 ERA through his first 11 starts, but it was reported earlier that the club was going to manage the youngster’s innings this year.
Pérez came into this season regarded as one of the best pitching prospects in the league, despite a fairly limited track record. He was signed as an amateur in 2019, but then the pandemic wiped out the minor leagues in 2020. He made his professional debut in 2021, tossing 78 innings. Last year, he was on pace to eclipse that mark but suffered a lat strain in the summer and was limited to shorter stints upon his return, finishing the year with just 77 innings pitched.
He’s had excellent results everywhere he’s pitched but came into 2023 without having cracked 80 innings in a season. He continued his run of excellent at the start of this year, posting a 2.32 ERA over 31 Double-A innings. He got called up to the majors and has thrived with a 2.36 ERA in 53 1/3 innings, striking out 28.4% of opponents against a 7.9% walk rate. Between Double-A and the majors, he’s already at 84 1/3 innings this year, more than either of the previous two campaigns.
Mish provides some more context in a subsequent tweet, saying that the club had planned on making this move earlier in the year. However, injuries to Johnny Cueto, Edward Cabrera and Trevor Rogers, as well as the continued excellence of Perez, pushed them to keep rolling with him for a while longer. Now the All-Star break is imminent and Cueto is nearing a return, putting them in a better position to continue without him. By all accounts, the club is hoping to slow Pérez down, using the less-competitive environment of the minors to manage his workload so that he still has some bullets left for the postseason race or appearing in the playoffs themselves. Mish adds that the timeline of this plan hasn’t yet been definitively worked out.
Subtracting Pérez from the rotation leaves them with Sandy Alcantara, Jesús Luzardo, Braxton Garrett and Bryan Hoeing. Cueto will be rejoining the club after the All-Star break, per Mish, but his role has yet to be determined. He posted a 10.50 ERA over six rehab starts and perhaps the club is hesitant to install him back into a rotation job right away. Cabrera is also working his way back to health and will start a rehab assignment tomorrow, per Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald.
As for Pérez and his service time, he was called up May 10 and wasn’t going to be able to get to a full year here in 2023. He could have been granted the entire year by finishing in the top two of Rookie of the Year voting, but that was always going to be a challenge as long as these workload limits were part of the conversation. He would have been in a decent position to qualify for arbitration after 2025 as a Super Two player, though his odds of maintaining that trajectory will be dropped, depending on how the rest of the season plays out.
Innings??? More like service manipulation… they should have just called him up later. He’s also on my fantasy team, sadly.
Took the words out of my mouth. Because how are you limiting Eury’s innings when he’s just pitching at Triple A instead of the Majors? Definitely service time manipulation, like Marcell Ozuna all over again.
He was called up mid May so they already got the Extra year of control no matter what. Maybe it affects super 2 status
Super cheap 2
Not no matter what. He automatically gets credited with a full year if he places in the top 2 for ROY. It’s possible they are trying to limit his innings in the majors to keep that from happening. The title is likely Corbin Carroll’s to lose but Perez has just a good a shot as anyone at top 2.
Marlins have a better record than Arizona, Dodgers, Giants, Brewers, Reds, Phillies, they are getting ready for the postseason and protecting their assets. The only question is when resting, should he get MLB service time and salary and historically teams have been able to rest prospects in minors.
Smart move by them, as they have not seen much continued success as a franchise, despite having 2 titles.
The Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp needed an attendance boost.
He’s been dominating on my fantasy team as well. That’s a big blow to my.championship aspirations
Managing innings worked for Strasburg. Has it worked for anyone in recent memory?
No search results for “his performance and health suffered because he pitched too many innings”.
Try looking under “players under 25 having TJ surgery.”
That does not translate into workload. Players under 25 who’s had their innings managed still had TJ surgery or another arm injury causing significant time off.
Managing innings is pretty much the norm, so…. yes?
That’s the point. The answer is no.
Man any trade deadline upgrade is gonna be completely offset by swapping Johnny Cueto for Perez in the rotation
Just hope Cueto doesn’t kick either of your catchers in the head. It’s a shame he can’t manage to end his own career.
I wonder who much he was making while on the Marlins roster and how much he will make now that he got sent down? Move him to the bullpen or skip a start here and there.
With the ASG break coming up, the Marlins might want to give Perez some work. Perez wasn’t called up until May 10, so service time probably isn’t a factor.
I get trying to preserve a young arm. But does this managing innings thing really work? After all, won’t they still be pitching in the minors anyway? I get it’s not as stressful as pitching in the majors, but still, they’d be going through a similar routine. It seems like the most sensible thing (at least to me) would be to slowly ease pitchers in since the start of the season, not to suddenly stop midway.
Pretzel logic. CLE has the exact same thing going on with Logan Allen. He was cruising right along with an ERA in the low 3s, but he was sent to AAA last week when Quantrill was activated to “manage his innings”. He’s gonna have just as many innings on that arm in AAA as he would if they kept him up.
Well, Allen wasn’t exactly cruising. He was having trouble getting to the 4th inning before his pitch count hit 100. As far as innings, he’s pitched in 3 for AAA Columbus while Cal has already made two starts, so no, you can absolutely manage innings in AAA v. MLB.
Solaris, so you agree that they’re still pitching and not actually “managing innings”
@Tortas pitching fewer innings per start in AAA and/or pushing starts back a few days in AAA = “managing innings”. Of course the pitcher will still pitch but it’s easier to manage innings like this in the minors.
Ok. So they actually manage it like that? Was just curious how it was done since I don’t usually follow MiLB but Solaris is saying they’re pitching “just as many innings.”
But I’m still wondering how effective this process is. For example, you wouldn’t immediately go 0-70 on the streets (unless you drive a Bimmer, I guess) because you’re constantly stopping due to stop lights and other drivers (plus, obviously, the law). And that quickly brings down your fuel tank.
But if you accelerate slowly and find a cruising speed, this has been proven to save you gas in the long run.
Obviously, it’s not a perfect analogy and there are way more factor involved in pitching. But we still see more injuries than ever before and that’s why I’m truly wondering, is the Eury situation really the most effective way we got right now?
Yes, I agree.
This is actually justifiable. He’s only 20 and his career innings totals in the minors are 78, 77, and 31.
How will he ever become a man if they keep treating him like a child?
How can my feet smell if they don’t have a nose ?
Any parent will tell you it’s important to limit your children’s innings
Any parent will tell you it’s important to have preemptive Tommy John surgery.
How will they win if they’re taking away key pieces in the name of safety that is not guaranteed?
One of the best young pitchers in the game but let’s send him back to useless triple A. Wtf
Agreed! Only the Marlins pull these type of stunts.
Only the Marlins. No other team ever has ever done this. Only the Marlins.
The Dodgers treated Urias like a child for several years and for the most part it’s worked out pretty well. With a guy as young as Perez (or Urias at the time), it’s tough to expect them to just be able to go out and throw even 100-130 innings.
Realistically, Perez should be a sophomore or junior in college. It would be crazy to expect a college starter to handle a major league workload right off the bat.
Urias had injuries in 2017-18 and literally came off the IL recently. He’s had injuries so I’d say it has worked like a regular pitcher where injuries are inevitable so ride the darn horse.
The goal of every team should be about winning. For the Marlins it should be about winning. Perez helps them be a better team. That means under no circumstance should Perez be held back. You make the workload sound like it’s Denton Young tossing over 300 innings. He’s on-pace for something like 140 innings combine AAA and the major leagues. “Realistically”, it’s not crazy to expect a 20-year old to handle that workload.
This is not a matter of manipulating service time. As has already been mentioned, he threw 78 innings in ‘21 and 77 in ‘22. He’s already tossed 84 innings this year, between the minors and majors.
He can’t be expected to throw another 80+ innings and still be effective in a potential postseason run. Not to mention, it would be high risk for his young arm.
There are ways to rest him without optioning him down, though. Six man rotation, put him in the bullpen, etc. I’ll eat my hat if he doesn’t pitch a single inning in AAA for the rest of the season, but we all know that isn’t the case. This is definitely manipulating service time.
Eury Perez has a casual conversation with a coach:
Eury: I miss AAA a bit
Coach: oh?
Eury: I mean my old teammates, but I would never want…
(Kim Ng overhears)
Kim Ng: Surprise! Free flight back, though! Bye!
If he wasn’t pitching the first series back then it’s a ten day list to add someone who they will need
I can’t be the only one seeing this, but maybe because I never see anyone mention it. I don’t understand the fixation on innings pitched when it should be pitches thrown. A 30 pitch inning and a 12 pitch inning look the same in the box score, Innings don’t wear a pitcher down, pitches thrown does,
I agree.
Not all pitches are equal. How many of the pitches were maximum versus normal effort? Depending on his mechanics, a slider may be more work than a fastball. Or vice versa. If the weather is warm, it might take more effort to throw the usual number of pitches than on a cool night.
ronnsnowp;
Teams keep track of the number of pitches thrown….and what they were……
Even in warm ups and bullpen sessions.
With the All-Star break nearing the reality is the Marlins can skip his turn in the rotation and carry an extra bullpen arm which is likely what is at play here. The same trio of Alcantara/Garrett/Luzardo going against the Phillies this weekend will be the same Trio that goes against the Orioles next weekend to start the second half
Marlins should look to add a swingman type at the deadline that can move to the pen should they make the playoffs. Maybe a guy like Michael Lorenzen or Trevor Williams
This is about as dumb as it gets for the marlins. They are actually in contention, he’s been great, and they can still manage his innings or pitch count at the mlb lvl. This is just a service time manipulation, which is apparently more important than winning for the marlins
Hardly…..
See McKenzie, Triston
That outing in Atlanta really ratcheted the innings pitched up, huh?
**** off
This is what happens when you have an incompetent GM who has no business running any operations.
Get beat by the Cardinals and see what happens.
We started the day with two (Este)Eury Perez’s in the Major Leagues but finishing with none. A concerning trend, surely
Group Think: What are we expecting from Cueto when he is activated?
Let him pitch!
It’s not a service time manipulation. It’s about his innings. And I wouldn’t worry because as soon as he starts making money the Marlins will trade him. It’s only a matter of time before this team is chopped up like a stolen car.
So, minor league pitchers don’t throw innings? All this to save maybe 1 inning per start??? Unless they are making him pitch every other start, I don’t see the logic here.
If he’s on the active roster you can’t shut him down without wasting a spot. No need to play him at AAA.