June 14: Pereira will undergo UCL surgery, SNY’s Andy Martino reports. That clearly indicates a tear of some degree in the outfielder’s ulnar collateral ligament. The Yankees have yet to formally announce the news, though when they do, the team will presumably provide more details and an expected timeline for Pereira’s return in 2025.
Martino suggests that Pereira could undergo the same type of internal brace procedure that teammate Jasson Dominguez required last year, which would come with a shorter timeline for recovery than a full reconstruction (i.e. Tommy John surgery). Dominguez had his surgery in September and was reinstated from the injured list and optioned to Triple-A earlier this week — a period of about nine months. If Pereira is on a similar trajectory, he could conceivably be ready at some point during spring training 2025.
June 13: The season is over for Yankees depth outfielder Everson Pereira. The 23-year-old has been on the seven-day minor league injured list since May 30. As noted by Conor Foley of the YES Network (X link), New York’s Triple-A affiliate announced this week that they’ve placed Pereira on the full-season IL. It’s not clear what the injury is or whether he requires any kind of surgery, but his season comes to a close after 40 Triple-A contests.
Pereira and the recently optioned Jasson Domínguez are the only outfielders on the 40-man roster behind the MLB quartet of Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, Alex Verdugo and Trent Grisham. Pereira would have had a hard time cracking that group even if he were healthy, but it’s not ideal to lose another four months of development reps. Pereira garnered attention towards the back half of Top 100 prospect lists at Baseball America and ESPN when he earned his first MLB call last August. The Venezuela native was coming off a huge showing between the top two levels of the minor leagues.
His stock has dipped since that point. Pereira couldn’t run with his initial major league opportunity. The Yankees played him as their primary left fielder once they’d fallen out of the playoff race in the final month. He hit .151/.233/.194 without a home run while striking out 40 times in 103 trips to the plate. Between Pereira’s rough September and Domínguez’s late-season Tommy John procedure, the Yankees went into the offseason needing to overhaul the outfield around Judge. They acquired Soto, Verdugo and Grisham to push Pereira towards the back of the depth chart.
Pereira entered the 2024 season as a divisive player on prospect lists. Keith Law of the Athletic ranked him only behind Domínguez in the Yankees system and kept him in the back half of his overall Top 100. Pereira landed sixth in the organization and in the top 100 overall at Baseball America but dropped to 17th on Eric Longenhagen’s write-up of the Yankee system at FanGraphs. Evaluators were unanimous in their praise for Pereira’s raw power and athleticism but divided as to whether he’d make enough contact to be a regular.
His first six weeks of 2024 were more of the same. Pereira drilled 10 homers with a .265/.346/.512 batting line over 182 plate appearances for Triple-A Scranton Wilkes-Barre. He fanned in nearly a third of his trips to the plate, though, pushing his strikeout rate to 29.9% in 150 games at the top two levels of the minor leagues. Pereira’s injury history is also now a mounting concern. An ankle injury cut his 2019 season short and he was limited to 49 games in 2021 (after losing the ’20 season because of the pandemic).
New York added Pereira to their 40-man roster during the 2021-22 offseason. He has spent time on optional assignment in each of the following three seasons. Most players are out of options, and therefore can no longer be sent down without first clearing waivers, after being optioned in three separate seasons. Teams are sometimes granted a fourth option year for players who have missed substantial time. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Yankees pursue an extra option on Pereira next offseason, though they won’t know for certain whether that’s in play until the winter. He’ll continue to count against their 40-man roster while he’s on the minor league injured list.
This hurts the Yankees OF depth
No
He seems to have Estavan Florial-like vibes…. Lots of talent, crushes AAA pitching, but doesn’t have the contact ability to sustain in the Majors at this point in his development.
In other words, a AAAA player, for now.
I don’t know why these guys don’t request trades. Yankees are going to repeat history and stall out their development never gave them legit consistent playing time. Instead guys like Everson and Oswald Pereza are just going to rot
My favorite Yankees prospect who never quite lived up to the hype is good old Shelley Duncan. Was nice to see him become manager of SWB though.
Damn, was hoping Periera and Arias would be decent trade chips for 1b and rp help.
Pereira’s stock will drop with this announcement, but Yankees still have some other prospects to trade for a 1B.
This is his last option year. Unless NY is granted another he’ll likely be available in the R5 draft. He won’t be playable until late next season.
He’s one the 40. They’d have to DFA him to remove him from it.
Giving up Arias would be a major mistake so please go for it lol
Arias is years away
Well today I learned there’s such a thing as a full season injured list.
It’s a minor league thing. The 60 day list runs up service time and the player gets paid ML minimum.
Full season injured list but no injury given seems to imply something of a more personal nature
To be fair minor league injury reporting is horrible. You’ll see decent prospect just appear on 60 ILs with no explanation
It’s really annoying how under-reported on MiLB injuries are.
Unfortunately, he had his chance with the Yankees last season and did nothing. The Yankees outfield of the future will hopefully consist of Soto, Dominez, and Spencer Jones. Judge can DH with Stanton long gone. To keep Soto Yankees need Durbin,Arias, Ramirez,Jones,Vivas,Dominez, Rice play a big part of the Future.
He was called up because the Yankees were out of it and they had nothing to lose by playing him. In fact, there was something to be gained. They weren’t expecting him to prove himself. They know his flaw. He was brought up so he could experience major league pitchers and understand what he needed to work on in 2024 in AAA. It was a development lesson that a team like the Yankees rarely can give. He may never overcome his flaw, but unfortunately his two months before this injury isn’t going to help. Hopefully they’re granted the fourth option. Seems likely considering he’ll be out for the last four months of this season.
Boone is sending Staton to the outfield means he wants Domínguez be calles, get hurts
Riley Greene of the Tigers had Tommy John last August and he was ready for Spring Training. He started off seeing considerable DH time, but has returned to full-time outfield duty. Pereira will be fine, just a bit further behind in his development.
Recovery from elbow surgeries tends to be a bit quicker for position players than pitchers, probably because they don’t need the extensive throwing program that pitchers have to go through.
Who? But he’s a Yankee & will no doubt get attention above everyone else not a Yankee
Anyone going to suggest this is from pitch clock? (I know he is not a pitcher. 🙂 )
No, it’s obviously Rob Manfred’s fault that Pereira injured his UCL.
Well yes, because he wasn’t ready in the outfield. Need time to toss a piece of grass in the air, check your armband cheat sheet, remind your neighbor outfielder how many outs there are, check your sunglasses for the sun, squint to see the catcher’s signal, and contemplate a silly new outfielder celebration for the end of the game. There’s a lot on his plate, this is hard work.
Yeah, the pitch clock fell on his elbow.
Elite contact quality. Unfortunately, lack of contact is a equally prominent superlative. His star was already fading fast. They should have traded him while he had the consensus top 100 attachment.
Do you really think other teams aren’t aware of his strengths as well as his faults? Being on top-100 lists is irrelevant to MLB teams. That’s a fan obsession.
I sure do think consensus is relevant to other teams. Often used in framework e.g., two top 100 players, one being in the top 30 is the sort of jargon seen here frequently.
Also, the addition of ROY compensation includes these lists as a prerequisite, so there’s more than fan fodder here.
“He’ll continue to count against their 40-man roster while he’s on the minor league injured list.”
——
Why can’t they move him to the 60-day IL to open up a 40-man spot? Or is that not allowed for minor league players?
Just spitballing… Moving him to the 60-Day IL would get his service time clock ticking and burn up his remaining option year since it would he a call-up.
My guess is that’s probably the issue. They could promote him and immediately put him on the 60-day IL. The additional cost isn’t the issue; it’s likely they hope they will be granted a fourth minor option year so they can keep him for 2025, and my guess is that can’t happen if he’s promoted. At worst, he can serve as depth in AAA with upside in 2025, while they continue to see if he can develop. Being granted an option would also increase his value if they wanted to move him this off season.