Blue Wahoos baseball: Marlins' top prospect Eury Perez showcases electric repertoire in Pensacola

While his Blue Wahoos teammates were extending a mid-game rally, Eury Perez was bouncing a baseball in the dugout to stay loose.

It was now 8-0 in the fifth inning of the Blue Wahoos 10-2 win May 25 against the Mississippi Braves. His coaches asked Perez if he wanted to come out, given the long inning.

He politely said no way.

Instead, the Perez applied the latest exclamation to his superlative-filled season, working six complete innings for the first time in a short pro career, thus making his last start another memory gem.

“I was trying to stay hot until I went back out there,” said Perez, speaking through teammate interpreter Luis Aviles Jr. “They ask me if I wanted to come out of the game and I said no, because I had a goal  to come out in the sixth and I knew I wanted to come out with no hits and no runs.”

That’s what happened, of course, as the 19-year-old, 6-foot-8 Perez produced a new way to wow.

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Of his 82 pitches that night, an astonishing 62 were strikes. Perez, rated the Miami Marlins No. 1 prospect by Baseball America, struck out one M-Braves batter with a 99-mph fastball; he punched out another batter for the final out with a 90-mph changeup.

Who can throw a changeup 90 miles-an-hour?

Perez can.

“It is legendary, we’ll put it that way,” said Blue Wahoos first baseman Troy Johnston, who extended his hitting streak to nine games by going 3-for-5 with two RBI.

“He is, what,19? And the kid is just a goofball, I love him. He is awesome,” Johnston said. “I played with him a little bit last year (at High-A level) and he is absolutely spectacular to watch.

“He is one of the guys that you will talk about later on in your career… that, yeah, wow, I played with Eury Perez. He was funny and this young kid when we were playing together.”

Scout's Honor

A four-decades scout in Major League Baseball recently had the ultimate assessment on Perez.

“He is the best I have ever seen at this age,” he said, after scouting hundreds of phenoms in his career.

Wow, indeed.

After nearly two months and his first seven starts with the Blue Wahoos, Perez may have even exceeded some of the lofty expectations which preceded the season.

No one could have envisioned at this point, he would have allowed just two home runs and struck out 50 batters in 34 innings pitched. And that he would transitioned this smoothly from last season playing in two Class A levels.

“Eury is the total package,” said Blue Wahoos pitching coach Dave Eiland, whose career includes major league stops as pitching coach with the New York Yankees, New York Mets and Kansas City Royals.

“What he needs is reps (repetitions),” Eiland said. “He needs innings, he needs starts, he needs to go out there and pitch and post for 21 starts or whatever it will be here and sharpen those skills.”

In   his   career,   Eiland   has   worked   with   some   of   the   top   pitchers   in   the  game  including  Mariano  Rivera,  Jacob  deGrom,  C.C.  Sabathia,  Noah  Syndergaard, and Yordano Ventura.

The   relationship   is   already   paying   dividends,  as  Eiland  has  helped  Pérez  develop  a  new  pitch  -  a  power  slider  -  to complement an arsenal that already includes a fastball that can reach 100 mph,  a  fading  changeup,  and  a  hard  curveball.

“The  slider,  that’s  my  new  pitch.  Dave  has taught me it. We’ve worked on it a lot,” Pérez said.

After a stellar training camp, including facing big-league hitters, the righthander has looked comfortable at this advanced level in professional baseball.

He began the season ranked as the Miami Marlins top prospect by Baseball America, No. 4 by MLB Pipeline.

Eury is well above his age,” said Blue Wahoos manager Kevin Randel. “He is so much sharper, smarter. He is not just some little kid out there who is 19 throwing 100 miles-an-hour all over the place. He is pretty poised and under control for a big man.

“I think everybody likes his body of work at such a young age,” Randel said. “Obviously, the potential you see as a number one ace in the big leagues… obviously he is a ways from that, but he’s got big-league stuff.”

Rapid Rise

This is exactly what the Marlins hoped when the signed Perez in 2019 in his hometown of Santiago, Dominican Republic. He received a $200,000 signing bonus, which now looks like one of the best bargains around.

Since then, he’s grown four inches. He added 45 pounds to reach 200 pounds. And his pitching array just got better and better.

“It means a lot to me that (Marlins) have put the trust in me to play at this level. I’m very grateful they see that special element in me,” said Perez, speaking through an interpreter.

“I have never heard of Pensacola before, but I know I will come to enjoy it,” said Perez. “The field is beautiful and Pensacola is a very beautiful city.”

Since being in Pensacola, Perez has smiled often and greeted strangers. Before pitching in a showcase start on May 13 against the Rocket City Trash Pandas – a game where his mound opponent was Sam Bachman the Los Angeles Angels top prospect, Perez even stopped to sign autographs for kids after warming up.

“I’m just trying to enjoy the game and have fun competing. Every level I have played, it’s still the same game,” Perez said. “All you’ve got to do is keep steady with what you know. And strive to become better. But every level it’s the same game.”

A year ago, area baseball fans got to see Max Meyer, the Marlins’ No. 1 pick in 2020, along with Jake Eder, a former Vanderbilt star, dazzle on the mound.

Meyer and Eder were both was 22, following collegiate careers when making Double-A debuts with the Blue Wahoos.

Perez is defying conventional wisdom.

He is the youngest player to start a season in Blue Wahoos history. He’s the first teenager in Miami Marlins history to play in Double-A since Giancarlo Stanton and Matt Dominguez played in 2009 for the Jacksonville Suns, the Marlins’ former Double-A affiliate.

“This is just the next step for him,” Eiland said. “The biggest step in Minor League Baseball is from A-Ball to Double-A. As talented as he is, we have to remember he should be a freshman in college right now.

“Eury has the prototypical picture-perfect delivery.”

Even with all that, Perez has handled the Double-A level and its ups-and-downs with the same kind of demeanor. He never looks upset or frustrated on the mound.

He also hasn’t been caught up the swirl of attention around him.

“That is something I try not to think about,” Perez said. “I just try to be another guy going out there and getting my work done every single day.

“Just competing against the other team and I just try to bring it every day, regardless of my height, my age, I just want to go out there and be successful every day.”

Bill Vilona is a retired Pensacola News Journal sports columnist and now senior writer for Pensacola Blue Wahoos. He can be reached at bvilona@bluewahoos.com

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: 19-year old ace Eury Perez better than advertised for Blue Wahoos