Miami Marlins’ rotation uncertainty continues as injuries pile up. Eury Perez is the latest

The Miami Marlins knew their starting pitching was going to be tested this season. That comes with the territory of being without ace Sandy Alcantara as he recovers from Tommy John surgery and continues when factoring in several of their starting pitchers haven’t pitched a full big-league season yet.

But the testing has already been amplified as injuries pile up one after another.

The latest: Right-handed pitcher Eury Perez, who was removed from his spring training start against the Washington Nationals on Wednesday after 14 pitches due to discomfort from a broken nail on his right middle finger.

Perez, 20, has been dealing with a broken fingernail on his right middle finger since his second spring training start on March 2. Perez wore a fake fingernail for his third start on Friday and only threw his four-seam fastball and curveball that outing.

Perez wore the fake fingernail again on Wednesday and said he felt the nail was “lifting a little bit.”

“That was the discomfort,” Perez said.

His outing started fine. Perez pumped three fastballs to Jacob Young that clocked in at 98.1 mph, 98.4 mph and 98.7 mph.

But the discomfort began to kick in one plate appearance later, during a six-pitch walk to James Wood. Perez followed that up with another walk to Jesse Winker.

After a pitch clock violation and his first pitch to Kiebert Ruiz — a 95.1 mph four-seam fastball (well below his average of 97.5 mph last season) — the Marlins’ staff made their way to the mound before ultimately deciding to take Perez out of the game.

The Marlins have been dealing with starting pitcher injuries all throughout camp.

Left-handed pitcher Braxton Garrett, Miami’s de-facto No. 2 starter last season after Alcantara was sidelined, is not expected be ready for the start of the season after shoulder soreness at the start of camp delayed his throwing progression. Garrett threw a multiple inning bullpen on Wednesday and is slated to throw a live batting practice session — his first of camp — as early as this weekend.

Then Edward Cabrera was removed from his start on Sunday before throwing a pitch due to shoulder tightness that an MRI reveled to be a right shoulder impingement. The Marlins’ hope is that he’ll resume a full throwing program in the next few days and can see where things go from there.

Now, there is uncertainty with Perez, who has thrown just eight innings through four spring outings and has two weeks to get fully ramped up for the season.

“That’s the problem,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said. “It’s tough to build up when he has the fingernail and [only throws] 14 pitches. Obviously not ideal when you’re trying to get to the 70-pitch mark. We needed him to bulk up today and it didn’t happen. We’ll try to figure out what’s going on and make sure he can build up.”

Added Perez: “It bothers me a little bit because it messes with your timing and stuff that you’re doing to prepare. The most important thing is that I’m healthy and ready for Opening Day.”

Perez showed over extended stretches last season just how dominant he can be.

After making his highly anticipated MLB debut on May 12 at 20 years and 27 days old — making him the youngest pitcher in franchise history to make his Major League debut, and the youngest for a Dominican-born starting pitcher all-time — Perez went on to make 19 starts and pitch to a 3.15 ERA over 91 1/3 innings. He struck out 108 batters while walking just 31 and held opponents to a .214 batting average against.

Through his first 11 starts — before being sent to Double A for a month from early July to early August to manage his workload so that he had innings left for Marlins’ playoff push — Perez had a 2.36 ERA, which was the lowest for a pitcher 20 years old or younger with at least 50 innings pitched in the Live Ball Era (since 1920). He was also youngest player (20 years and 71 days old) since at least 1901 to record three consecutive scoreless outings of six-plus innings.

Perez’s season ended on Sept. 23, when the Marlins placed him on the injured list with left SI joint inflammation.

Pending the status of Cabrera and Perez, Miami’s rotation to begin the season is getting thin. Left-handed pitcher Jesus Luzardo is the Opening Day starter. Fellow lefties A.J. Puk, Ryan Weathers and Trevor Rogers are slated to join him. If neither Cabrera nor Perez is available, Miami will have to dip into its reserves.

Righties Bryan Hoeing and George Soriano are swingmen who could be spot starters or provide multiple innings out of the bullpen. Non-roster invitees Yonny Chirinos, Vladimir Gutierrez and Devin Smeltzer could be in consideration if needed as well.

“This stuff seems to happen,” Schumaker said. “Every team goes through it. Luckily Braxton threw a really good bullpen. We have guys that are going to be right behind, but obviously it’s not ideal. You want your best guys going and healthy on Opening Day. Hopefully, it’s a crack that we can figure out.”