- Chris Cotillo
- of MassLive reports on X that Red Sox right-hander Luis Perales would have Tommy John surgery the following week. As a result, the young righty will miss the most of this season and perhaps 2025 as well. Perales, who pleased the Red Sox enough to earn a spot on the 40-man roster in November, is unfortunate to lose this game. The Sox were worried enough about losing him in the Rule 5 draft, even though he hadn’t quite made it to Double-A, to take him in November.Now 21, he was signed as an international amateur out of Venezuela in 2019. The pandemic canceled the minor leagues in 2020 and then injuries limited Perales to just two innings in 2021. He was able to make a bit of progress in 2022, tossing 35 2/3 innings between the Complex League and Single-A, with a combined earned run average of 1.77 that year.
He really took a step forward last year, splitting his time between Single-A and High-A. He tossed 89 2/3 innings over 21 starts with a 3.91 ERA and 29.3% strikeout rate. His 12.7% walk rate was on the high side but perhaps understandable for a developing pitcher who had missed a lot of time.
Things had been moving along nicely here in 2024, as he made seven good High-A starts and got bumped to Double-A for two outings there. He had struck out 38.9% of batters faced on the year while dropping his walk rate to 8.3%, leading to a 2.94 ERA, though those will now go down as his final numbers for the year with the news of his surgery.When a pitcher has Tommy John surgery, which has a 14–18 month rehab period, it is always annoying. However, this is particularly difficult because Perales has already missed a significant amount of time, even though recently, he seemed to be doing well. He won’t be able to do much in 2025 and won’t be able to continue developing this year either.Since he was added to the 40-man roster, he is in the first of his three option years and he will have one option year left by the end of 2025. However, teams are often granted a fourth option when a player missed significant time due to injury. The Sox could recall him and add him to the 60-day injured list if they want to use his roster spot on someone else, but doing so would mean giving Perales major league pay and service time.
