One Injury the Marlins Can’t Afford Besides Kyle Stowers
In this story:
The Miami Marlins are starting the season with a couple of players on the sidelines. Injuries can be detrimental to a team when there are goals to reach for the season.
Losing a key player like outfielder Kyle Stowers is a blow to the Marlins. The upside is that it's not a season-ending injury. They will be without his services for almost a month. There's another key player on the Miami roster who's very important to the team, and the team can't afford for this player to get injured.
Eury Pérez Must Be Durable
To put things into perspective, everyone wearing the Marlins jersey is important. There's a lot of talent on this roster. But 22-year-old right-hander Eury Pérez is arguably the most crucial player on the team besides Stowers.
He's the second-best pitcher in the rotation. Pitching leads a team to great success. You can't win a World Series without a good rotation. The Marlins will need Perez to take a lot of the load from ace Sandy Alcantara.
Perez has been working very hard behind the scenes. He stayed in Miami during the offseason, worked on his pitching mechanics and command, and added more weight to his frame. We are seeing a pitcher that can win a lot of games for this team.
When a pitcher comes back from Tommy John surgery, it's a 50/50 chance whether he will become better than ever or will not be the same pitcher he once was. Only time will tell if Perez can pitch at a high level.
Had Perez been in action all of last season, maybe the Marlins would have won more games. He's very valuable to the team at such a young age. Perez admires and looks up to Alcantara, and the beauty about it is that he can learn so much from him. Young talent who want to thrive and have long-term success would want to learn from those who have been in the trenches.
Perez will turn 23 on April 15. He won't be hitting his prime until in three or four years. There's a lot of time for him to showcase to the world that he can be one of the greatest to ever pitch in his generation. He's made some adjustments with his sweeper and cutter this spring. It's a matter of putting those adjustments to work against great hitters and teams in the National League. That's the real test right there. Can he shut down or make it difficult against elite players?
His first start of the season will likely come on Saturday against the Colorado Rockies.
After graduating from City College of New York in 2014, Miguel created his own blog. Since 2021, he has written for FanSided, where he covered the Toronto Blue Jays, College Football and Utah Mammoth hockey team. He also wrote for Miami Heat on SI and Cleveland Sports Talk. Miguel is the creator and host of his podcast, Baseball Heat Podcast with Mike.