Meet the next big (and I mean big) pitching prospect for the Marlins: Eury Pérez.
- Born: April 15, 2003
- B/T: Right/Right
- 6’8″, 220-lbs
- Signed by the Marlins in 2019 out of the Dominican Republic
The Numbers
His raw numbers are listed above courtesy of baseball-reference.com. Let’s aggregate by year then focus on the important numbers for minor leaguers:
If you watch the video above, you’ll see the 6’8″ Pérez throw with a smooth motion. With the tall arms you sometimes have to wait for the control to fall into place as they learn to handle those long arms and legs. But in Eury’s case, he seems to have that part of his game figured out already.
He signed at age 16, and his first professional experience was as an 18-year-old in A ball. In 2021 he spent most of the year at A level, and finished at High-A. The strikeouts were there at the very start, and the walks become excellent by the end of the year.
At age 19 he spent the year at Double-A where he was more than 5 years younger than the competition. Those two IP at A-ball in 2022 were an injury rehab start before he finished the year back at Double-A. Again we see his great strikeout ability, and the walks are not that bad considering. A 1.160 WHIP at that level is fine.
Monthly Splits
Now we see he didn’t have an 8% walk rate all year. In fact his walk rate was getting better month-by-month, and then he was injured and had a brief time back after injury for which we give him a mulligan.
This is dominance.
Pérez already has three good pitches, two of them plus: his mid-90s four-seam FB that he repeats well despite his hight. And his changeup that gives batters fits when it drops out of the zone. He has a curve as well that is usable once it becomes consistent.
Handedness K% and BB%
AA (vs RH): 33%K and 6%BB. (vs LH): 35%K and 10%BB.
He strikes out anyone.
The Scouts
- Rotowire: #19 on their Top 400
- Fantrax: #30 on their Top 400
- RotoProspects: #18 on Top 500
Warnings
Well, he did get injured, and he is a pitcher, so there’s that.
But a 20-year-old about to tackle Triple-A, are you kidding me? I got nothing.
Conclusion
When you have two plus pitches and one average pitch, and you have good command of your pitches, you have the makings of a frontline starter in the majors.
Pérez just needs to show he can handle Triple-A and he will be in the majors as soon as 2023. By the middle of the decade he could be the Marlins’ ace.