The Boston Red Sox have struggled to develop pitching for decades but appeared to finally have hit on a rising star that was making strides in 2024.
Unfortunately, the prized prospect reportedly has suffered a severe setback, halting a dominant season.
"In recent days, the Red Sox had optimism that top pitching prospect Luis Perales was not dealing with a serious elbow injury. An MRI, however, revealed the worst," MassLive's Chris Cotillo wrote Tuesday.
"Perales will undergo season-ending Tommy John surgery next week after an MRI revealed significant damage in his pitching elbow, according to an industry source."
Perales had a 2.94 ERA with a 56-to-12 strikeout-to-walk ratio, .250 batting average against and a 1.31 WHIP in 33 2/3 innings across nine starts between High-A Greenville and Double-A Portland.
The 21-year-old showed an incredible propensity to generate strikeouts and had all of the tools to develop into a frontline starter at the big league level.
Now the hurler will be shut down for the remainder of the season and likely a good portion of 2025 as well. The silver lining is that nearly all top pitchers undergo Tommy John at some point and he'll likely be back on the mound at 22 years old -- which is a perfectly normal age to be in Double-A Portland.
Perales will still be regarded as the best shot Boston has to develop an impact starter and the hope would be that the new pitching development team can take him to the next level when healthy.
Until then, the Red Sox do not have much to look forward to in terms of pitching prospects -- which has become the norm in Boston.
