‘I want to stay up here’: How top Marlins prospect Eury Perez is handling MLB expectations

There’s a calm confidence that Eury Perez exudes. He doesn’t feel any pressure, or at least he makes it seem that way. With each passing day as he lives out the early portions of his dream with the Miami Marlins, Perez is balancing taking in everything around him with a childlike fascination and a professional approach.

“It’s been a lot of fun,” the right-handed pitcher said. “Every time I go out there, that’s what I try to do. I don’t want that to change. Every time I go out there, I give everything I’ve got.”

But Perez does understands his situation.

He’s barely 20 years old and he’s set to make his fourth MLB start on Sunday as the Marlins wrap up their three-game series against the Los Angeles Angels and their 10-game road trip that has swings through San Francisco and Denver.

The wunderkind of a right-handed pitcher, standing 6-8 and ranked as Miami’s top prospect and a consensus top-10 prospect in all of baseball, is truly soaking in the moment. He’s carefree in the clubhouse, joking around with teammates with a smile almost permanently etched on his face. He’s showing strides on the mound, pumping fastballs that are close to 100 mph and making hitters look silly with his slider and curveball that are generating swings and misses.

He doesn’t want the moment to stop, and he’s trying to show the Marlins that there’s no reason for it to stop.

“I want to stay up here, competing with all my teammates and helping the team,” Perez said. “I’ve been working really hard out there competing and trying to get better.”

Perez enters his fourth MLB start with a 3.86 ERA and 16 strikeouts against six walks over 14 innings. At 20 years and 27 days when he made his MLB debut on May 12, he became the youngest pitcher in Marlins’ history and the second youngest player ever to debut with the Marlins in club history, behind only infielder Edgar Renteria (19 years, 277 days at the time of his debut).

In addition to having a repeatable delivery, something that isn’t always easy for a pitcher of his height, his fastball is a double threat because of the high velocity (averaging 97 mph) and spin rate (average of 2627 revolutions per minute), the latter of which causes deception.

Meanwhile, he has given up just three hits in 29 plate appearances that have ended with either of his breaking balls — a mid-80s slider and a low-80s curveball that have induced swing and miss rates of 41.7 percent and 57.1 percent, respectively, early in his MLB tenure. Fourteen of his 16 strikeouts have come on those two pitches.

“Nothing surprises me anymore with this 20-year-old,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said. “It’s just kind of crazy that he’s as strong minded as he is already. ... I was at Santa Barbara trying to figure out my life at 20 and he’s pitching in The Show. It’s kind of crazy still to me, but the way he handles it day in and day out, I don’t think anything really fazes him.”

Now, there are some strings attached to Perez’s time in the big leagues. The organization is cautiously monitoring him, which is understandable considering where he is in his development. Perez has never thrown more than 78 innings in a season, more than six innings in a game or more than 90 pitches in a game.

He’s also just starting to get used to a normal starting pitcher’s routine of pitching every five days. In the minor leagues, he generally pitched once a week.

“You’re trying to win a game,” Schumaker said. “That’s the most important part. Yes, we care about his development. Yes, we care about his health and where he’s at physically and mentally. But he’s here to help us win.”

Perez said he doesn’t do any arm exercises the day after his starts and has focused on getting more care in the training room in between starts to expedite his recovery time.

He’s also preparing more mentally, watching more video ahead of his starts and figuring out a proper game plan with pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr.

“It’s been incredible,” Perez said. “I don’t want any setbacks.”

What Perez does from here could leave the Marlins with an interesting decision to make. His promotion, after all, came at a time when the Marlins needed to fill a rotation spot with both Johnny Cueto and Trevor Rogers on the injured list with biceps injuries. Rogers threw three innings on Thursday in a simulated game and is set to begin a rehab assignment next week, pointing to a potential return as early as mid-June barring any setbacks.

How will the Marlins navigate that spot once Rogers is cleared to return? They’ll cross that bridge when they get to it.

For now, the spot belongs to Perez, who will continue to get the ball every fifth game with a chance to show that he can stay in the big leagues.

His next chance to do that will be Sunday against the Angels.