Dominican Republic bypasses Eury Perez for WBC. The Miami Marlins ace looks to focus on pitching improvement after missing entire 2024 season.
Six Miami Marlins will be representing their respective countries in this year’s World Baseball Classic, and Eury Perez won’t be one of them.
Perez is from the Dominican Republic, which is routinely one of the favorites to win the WBC.
This means that some talented major-league pitchers are going to be left off the roster.
With guys like Framber Valdez, Cristopher Sánchez, Luis Castillo, Freddy Peralta and Perez’s Marlins teammate Sandy Alcantra, there isn’t room for everybody.
Although so far, only Alcantra and Peralta have confirmed they will play, Perez confirmed in an exclusive interview with Fish on First that he will not.
"No, I'm not going to sign, but they didn't contact me either," Perez said.
All Perez can do is focus on getting better, and the 22-year-old has plenty of time to do that.
He’s yet to pitch a full season in the majors, coming up in the middle of the 2023 season, then undergoing Tommy John surgery in April 2024, which cost him all of that season and some of the next one.
He ended up starting 20 games last season, ending with a 7-6 record and 4.25 ERA.
The Marlins will need him to be better this season.
With Edward Cabrera (Chicago Cubs) and Ryan Weathers (New York Yankees) each being traded, Miami’s pitching depth took a hit.
Perez is Miami’s No. 2 starter behind Alcantra, and to be a quality No. 2, he’ll have to do better than a 4.25 ERA.
Improving upon a pitch he started throwing last season could go a long way in this effort.
Last season, Perez started throwing a sweeper, but never used it in a game.
"You know that the sweep, we started throwing it during the season. It's a pitch that I still have to work on," he said. "The same with the switch (changeup), which is one of the pitches that will help me a lot in the league."
So what pitches did Perez throw the most last year?
Well, according to FanGraphs, he threw a four-seam fastball the most (862) followed by a slider (513), curveball (153), changeup (131) and sinker (14).
He can certainly sling it.
Perez has thrown as hard as 101.5 mph before, and routinely reaches 98-99.
This has led to plenty of punchouts for Perez, who led all Marlins starters with a 9.9 K/9 rate.
If Alcantra -- who won a Cy Young Award three years ago, but had a 5.36 ERA last season -- can’t return to form, the Marlins could be counting on Perez to be their top guy.
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