Eury Perez could be biggest question for questionable Miami Marlins rotation in 2026

To be clear, Miami Marlins fans, a bad inning in a spring debut is about as meaningful as a Jeffrey Loria promise about annual payroll.

Particularly one where the pitcher in question leaves it healthy and hits 99 mph on the radar gun.

So no, this is not about reading anything into Eury Perez's Grapefruit League debut. However, if you wanted to spin a story about how the inning was a microcosm of Perez's Marlins tenure- inconsistent mental errors mixed with flashes of otherwordly ability- you wouldn't be too far out of bounds either. It was all there Monday. An impressive strikeout. Pitch clock violations. High octane heat. Some trouble to locate pitches. In short, a tale of two pitchers.

Going surface deep only, you could say those two pitchers are the one that brokeout in 2023 to wide acclaim, and then the one who struggled after coming back from injury in 2025 with a 4.25 ERA. Go a little deeper, as you should, and the more advanced stats paint a compelling case that the only difference between the two seasons might have been lousy luck. Perez's xERA and xFIP were better in 2025 than 2023. On the other hand, he saw declines in the ability to strand runners, strikeout rate, and K-BB. Balls were hit harder, and it cost him.

Bottom-line? Perez is probably an elite pitcher, and certainly has the tools to be so. Yet he hasn't shown it for a whole season yet. Nor has he shown the ability to take on that ace-like ability to end losing streaks, save the bullpen, or snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in a tight series. At least not consistently, and not with the regularity the only man above him in the Marlins pitching pecking order has done.

Will this be the season he shows he can do that?

So much of the offseason chatter about Miami's rotation has taken it for granted that he will, with all of the focus on who fill fill out the rest of the staff. Who will step up behind Sandy Alcantara and Perez and become that third musketeer that opposing teams will dread facing? Those are important questions to be sure. Indeed, you can expect some articles wrestling with those very questions on this very site over the next two weeks.

The thing is, short of a Paul Skenes-level breakout from Robby Snelling or Thomas White, none of those questions are going to much matter if Perez doesn't cement himself as the Robin to Alcantara's Batman this season. The Marlins will only be going as far as their pitching takes them, and will need multiple above average arms if that destination is a winning season and a shot at playing on into October. After all, that's what they've had every season they made the playoffs- three above average starting pitchers at a minimum, at least for enough of the season to get there.

The math there just doesn't math without Perez fully establishing himself as one of the game's best pitchers in 2026.

Don't get me wrong- how the rest of the rotation shakes out and who takes up the No. 4 and No. 5 spots is the biggest story of the spring. Just don't sleep on what the man locked into the No. 2 is doing either.

Because nothing else will much matter if he isn't looking like an ace come March 28th.