The Miami Marlins appear to have gotten a huge break on Saturday as the injury that caused youngster Eury Perez to leave his start early was only a broken fingernail.
Per Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald on social media:
Eury Perez said the nail on his right middle finger broke. No pain. No concerns.
That's massive news for a Miami team that is already without former Cy Young winner Sandy Alcantara for the entire season because of injury. Perez entered last season as one of the top prospects in all of baseball and is primed for another big jump in 2024.
Earlier in the spring, Perez was slowed by a small cut on his pitching hand but these issues appear unrelated.
He went 5-6 last year with a 3.15 ERA, making 19 starts as the Marlins got to the playoffs as a National League wild card team. He struck out 108 batters in those 91.1 innings.
Perez likely will be on an innings limit of about 150 innings this year.
Perez will join Braxton Garrett, Edward Cabrera and Jesus Luzardo in the starting rotation this season, although there are still rumblings of teams willing to trade for Cabrera or Luzardo. However, that may be more likely at the trade deadline at this point.
Miami won 84 games last season in getting to the playoffs but was eliminated by the Philadelphia Phillies in two games in the wild card round. They'll have to contend with the Phillies and Atlanta Braves in a highly-competitive National League East this season.
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