Nationals Boss Tells Fans What They Should Expect From Luis Perales in 2026

Luis Perales will be someone Washington Nationals fans should keep an eye on next year.

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One of the most notable moves the Washington Nationals made so far this offseason was pulling off a prospect-for-prospect trade that sent left-hander Jake Bennett to the Boston Red Sox in exchange for right-hander Luis Perales.

It seemingly came out of nowhere. After Bennett returned in 2025 following his Tommy John surgery and had a breakout showing in the Arizona Fall League, the expectation was that he'd be a featured part of the Nationals' rotation at some point during the upcoming season.

But instead, president of baseball operations Paul Toboni flipped the lefty for a high-upside flamethrower who is coming off his own Tommy John procedure, giving Washington yet another young arm who could develop into a star at some point during his career.

Toboni spoke about the deal and gave Nationals fans an idea of what they should expect from Perales next year as he continues to work his way back from that long-term injury.

Nationals Will Have Luis Perales on Innings Limit

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"We're just gonna be really thoughtful about his workload and make sure that he's prepared from a everything that takes place off the field – strength and conditioning – standpoint," Toboni said, per Bobby Blanco of MASN. "All the proactive work he's going to do to make sure that we can keep him healthy and at his best. We're going to be very thoughtful about how we parse out innings for him and then we'll go from there."

What exactly that looks like isn't clear at this time. After pitching 33 2/3 innings in 2024 before picking up the injury, he only returned and threw 2 1/3 frames across three outings this past season. That caused the Red Sox to send him to the Arizona Fall League, where he started six games and tossed 11 1/3 innings.

Luis Perales blows three pitches by Sam Antonacci to open up the game.

Four seamer at 98.4 MLB
Cutter at 92.3 MPH
Four seamer at 100.3 MPH pic.twitter.com/i7QI8bMYBS

— Aram Leighton (@AramLeighton8) October 14, 2025

There's no doubting the stuff Perales possesses. The goal for Washington will be to keep him healthy and allow him to reach his ceiling, which could give them a front-of-the-line starting pitcher at some point when he's ready to pitch in the majors on a full-time basis.

"He's got swing-and-miss stuff. He's still coming back from the injury, but he should be ready to roll in spring training and ready for the start of the season," Toboni added. "He's got a really exciting fastball, exciting secondary. And then just having been around him a good amount in Boston, he's a stud competitor. I think a number of us were just really drawn to that and kind of what he can achieve as a pitcher going forward for us."

It's a good sign Perales is expected to be ready for spring training and the start of the 2026 season. That will allow the Nationals to formulate a workload plan for the talented youngster, while they also assess what he can do for them.

Fans should be excited about what's to come for the youngster, as he is yet another high-upside arm who could be starring in the nation's capital one day.