Eury Pérez Shelled in First Start Since 2023, Faces Tough Outing Against Pittsburgh Pirates

Monday evening wasn't a very pleasant one for 22-year-old right-handed pitcher Eury Perez. After making just eight starts (five with Pensacola and three with Jacksonville), Miami thought the young right-hander was ready after posting a 1.99 ERA in 22.2 innings pitched. However, a day of celebration turned into a day of turmoil for more reasons than just a bad start.

Just an hour or so before game time, the Miami Marlins announced that Ryan Weathers would be placed on the 60-day injured list with a left lat strain—a blow that blindsided many. The timing of the news was particularly jarring given that Weathers had just endured a scary moment the previous afternoon, taking a throw from catcher Nick Fortes off the top of his head during warmups. Although he initially appeared to avoid serious injury, the revelation of a significant lat strain threw Miami’s already thin pitching depth into further disarray. With Weathers now out long term, the Marlins are forced to lean even more heavily on a rotation already riddled with injuries and inconsistencies.

The ripple effect of that pressure was evident in Eury Pérez’s long-awaited return to the mound. In a 10-3 loss to Pittsburgh, the 22-year-old right-hander lasted just three innings, surrendering four earned runs on four hits. While his fastball still touched the upper 90s, but his breaking stuff—a key reason for his success in Double-A Pensacola and Triple-A Jacksonville—appeared flat and lacked the sharp bite seen earlier this season.

It’s understandable for a young arm to be a bit off after a layoff, but Pérez’s outing raised legitimate questions about whether he currently possesses the pitch mix to consistently retire major league hitters. With Weathers sidelined and Pérez still finding his footing, the Marlins face a pivotal stretch where their rotation depth will be tested more than ever.

It feels like all season long, just when Miami gets a player back, another one goes straight to the injured list. The rotation has been in constant flux, the bullpen has been stretched thin, and the lineup has never been the same since Opening Day. It’s been a frustrating game of musical chairs — one that’s made it nearly impossible for the team to build any kind of momentum. For every glimmer of hope, there seems to be an equal and opposite setback.

In some ways, the Marlins should have expected this kind of outing from Eury Pérez. Not because he isn’t talented — far from it — but because we’ve seen this story before. In fact, we’ve seen it unfold with another towering right-hander in the same clubhouse: Sandy Alcantara.

Pérez and Alcantara are mirror images in more ways than one. Both are tall, electric arms capable of throwing upper-90s fastballs with movement, devastating changeups, and the occasional slider/curveball that buckles knees. Both came up through the Marlins’ system as prized aces-in-the-making. But their paths have also shared some uncomfortable parallels: namely, struggles with refining their pitch mix and adjusting once hitters begin to figure them out, a reason why letting Mel Stottlemyre Jr. walk has been such a hard transition for the pitching staff.

Following the Sandy Alcantara Blueprint

Just like Sandy early in his career — and even during stretches of his Cy Young campaign — Eury has leaned heavily on raw stuff. But as Sandy’s results in 2023 showed, pure velocity doesn’t cut it forever. Without an elite breaking ball to keep hitters honest or a pitch that can generate consistent whiffs in high-leverage spots, even the most talented arms can be exposed.

The key for Eury will be getting ahead of hitters instead of falling behind and walking batters. That cost him in the bottom of the third inning and ultimately led to Bryan Reynolds' three-run triple that blew the game open. However, Sandy had to go through a similar transition before he became the dominant force we saw in 2022. The blueprint is there — now it’s up to Pérez to follow it.

So no, it wasn’t all that surprising to see Eury struggle out of the gate. For the Marlins, the hope is that this is just the first step in a much bigger comeback story.