Did the Miami Marlins optioning of Eury Perez backfire?

The Miami Marlins are very concerned about the health and overuse of young phenom Eury Perez.  Perez was on a roll in the big leagues and posted a 2.36 ERA over 11 starts.  Perez was the best pitcher on the team for his short stint in the big leagues. 

Perez is only 20 and so the Marlins wanted to be sure not to over use his arm as he has not had many innings under his belt in prior years.  Perez was heavily managed when he was up with the Marlins and he was under a strict pitch count.  Perez never eclipsed 100 pitches and rather often ended up going only 5 innings as a result.  Perez was managed with the team and somewhat understandably he was given a break as he went over his season total, but the question is did he need to be totally shut down?

Marlins fans have been reeling in August, as the Marlins have lost 4 in a row and are 3-7 for the last 10 games coming into the Eury Perez return start. The Marlins could have used 2 more wins to sit at .500 rather than giving up a handful of runs and sitting at 3-7 over the last 10. Is it a guarantee the Marlins would have won those games, no but the bullpen would likely be more rested and the Marlins would have had their best chance at winning, which is all the difference.

Perez made his first return start Monday night and did not fare well against a tough power-hitting Reds team. Eury gave up 4 runs in 4.2 innings of work on 5 hits, including 2 home runs. He did strike out 7 batters and looked dominant most of the time he was in but gave up a few quick home runs in the 4th inning.

Perez had a few appearances in the minors with similar results, so it seems that once he was sent down he was taken out of his groove. He had a 20 day rest in between starts and he went 2.1 innings with 2 earned in his first outing in AA and then 3.1 innings and gave up 3 earned his second start. The Marlins young star hopefully will get back on track his next start, but it seems to me the Perez situation was mishandled.

Now the question remains, will the Marlins be able to survive the August schedule and remain in competition for a Wild Card spot. If they struggle and don't make the playoffs, one easy reason for that could be their mismanagement of Eury Perez. There is no way to know for certain if the innings would have hurt his arm but we do know the lack of innings with the Marlins did have an impact.