Inside The Red Sox

Red Sox Top Pitching Prospect Reportedly Facing Season-Ending Surgery

Boston will have to wait a little longer for their lottery ticket to develop

Scott Neville

Mar 30, 2023; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; A general view of Fenway Park before a game between the Boston Red Sox and the Baltimore Orioles at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Eric Canha-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 30, 2023; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; A general view of Fenway Park before a game between the Boston Red Sox and the Baltimore Orioles at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Eric Canha-USA TODAY Sports / Eric Canha-USA TODAY Sports
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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.

More MLB: Red Sox Could Acquire Highly Intriguing Slugger From Athletics After Strong 2023 Season

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Scott Neville

SCOTT NEVILLE

Scott Neville covers the Boston Red Sox for Sports Illustrated's new page "Inside The Red Sox." Before starting "Inside The Red Sox", Neville attended Merrimack College, where he earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Communication and Media with a minor in Marketing. Neville spent all four years with Merrimack's radio station WMCK, where he grew as a radio/podcast host and producer.  His propensity for being in front of a microphone eventually expanded to film, where he produced multiple short films alongside his then-roommate and current co-worker Stephen Mottram. On a journey that began as a way to receive easy credits via film classes, he received a call from "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" star Charlie Day. Day advised him to make a feature-length film, which he completed his senior year. While writing the film, Neville completed an internship for United Way as part of their NFL Partnership Program. Neville ran the blog for a team of interns and hosted an internet show called "United Way's NFL Partnership Series" where he interviewed NFL alumni. After college Neville wrote for SB Nation's "Over The Monster," a Red Sox sister site of the flagship brand. His work would eventually lead him to a job as a content producer with NESN, where he would cover all sports. After developing as a writer with the top regional network in the world, he was given the opportunity to join the Sports Illustrated Media Group in his current endeavor as the publisher of "Inside The Red Sox." The successful launch and quick rise of "Inside The Red Sox" led to Neville joining the Baseball Essential ownership group, a national baseball site under SIMG. Follow him on Twitter: @ScottNeville46 Email: nevilles@merrimack.edu

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