Marlins pitcher Eury Pérez expected to miss approximately 8 weeks with odd leg injury

NEW YORK (AP) — Miami Marlins pitcher Eury Perez is expected to miss about two months with a bizarre leg injury sustained while he was stretching in the dugout.

The right-hander exited Wednesday’s start in Toronto after throwing four shutout innings because his right hamstring spasmed while he was doing lateral lunges on the bench to limber up for the fifth. He was in such pain he needed assistance from a teammate to descend the steps into the clubhouse.

Pérez had imaging Thursday that revealed a high-grade strain of his right gracilis, a long, thin muscle on the inside of the thigh.

The 23-year-old Pérez is 3-6 with a 4.60 ERA in 12 starts, but his last two outings were excellent. He struck out a season-high nine against the Blue Jays before getting hurt, giving him 14 strikeouts without a walk while allowing just one run and five hits over his last 10 1/3 innings. He has 72 strikeouts in 62 2/3 innings this year.

“Unfortunate, with his last couple starts how well he was throwing the ball. We'll just have to pick up and keep going,” manager Clayton McCullough said Friday before the Marlins opened a three-game series against the New York Mets. “It's a team thing, so guys just have to step up and that's all you can do.”

McCullough said there's no plan in place yet for how Miami will fill Pérez's rotation spot beginning next week.

Pérez was put on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to Thursday, and the club recalled right-hander Josh Ekness from Triple-A Jacksonville. In another move, Leo Jimenez was reinstated from the seven-day concussion injured list and fellow infielder Graham Pauley was optioned to Jacksonville.

Jiménez got hurt when he took a knee to the head from Atlanta Braves star Ronald Acuna Jr. while he was sliding into third base on May 19.

Armed with a 98-99 mph fastball, the 6-foot-8 Pérez was rated one of baseball’s top prospects before making his major league debut at age 20 in May 2023.

He sat out the 2024 season while recovering from Tommy John surgery with an internal brace, and returned to Miami’s rotation in June 2025. He is 15-18 with a 3.93 ERA in 51 career starts.

“We know it's a young pitcher that still had a lot of experiences to gain from just getting the chance to take the ball at the major league level every fifth or sixth day," McCullough said.

"So, that’s kind of the most frustrating part is, you sense a little bit that maybe this was a player that was starting to get on a little bit of a roll, put some things together, and now he’s obviously going to have to miss a significant amount of time.”

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