Inside The Red Sox

Unknown Pitching Prospect With 98 MPH Fastball Rising Up Red Sox's System

Luis Perales is setting the table for a breakout season in 2023

Scott Neville

Unknown Pitching Prospect With 98 MPH Fastball Rising Up Red Sox's System
Unknown Pitching Prospect With 98 MPH Fastball Rising Up Red Sox's System /
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The lower levels of the Boston Red Sox's farm system continues to produce intriguing talent this season.

Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom is closing out his third season at the helm of the organization and is starting to show his prowess when it comes to building up an endless well of young talent.

The latest rising star, however, was one of the last moves in the Dave Dombrowski era and could soon become a top 100 prospect in all of baseball if he can continue his current trajectory. 

Luis Perales, the No. 19 Red Sox prospect on Sox Prospects after entering the season unranked, has put on a show since coming over to the United States in June.

The 19-year-old flamethrower made nine appearances (seven starts) in the Florida Complex League and posted a 1.08 ERA, allowing just three earned runs on 10 hits with a 34-to-9 strikeout-to-walk ratio and a .120 batting average against in 25 innings of work. 

He was named the FCL Pitcher of the Month in July and quickly made Baseball America's list of top 10 prospects from this year's rookie league, one of three Red Sox prospects to do so. A large reason for his rising status is his fastball, which can reach 98 mph with movement, though it sits in the mid-90s. He also features a curveball beyond his years and a developmental changeup with flashes of being a plus pitch.

When the FCL season ended, the Red Sox were not ready for his fantastic season to end, so they sent him to Single-A Salem to make four more starts. 

While Perales was not quite as dominant in a short sample size, he certainly was not overwhelmed by the promotion. The 6-foot-1, 160-pound right-hander posted a 3.38 ERA with Salem (four earned runs in 10 2/3 innings) with a more erratic 16-to-11 strikeout-to-walk ratio and a .250 batting average against. 

The average Single-A pitcher was 21.9 years old according to Baseball America's J.J. Cooper, essentially three years older than Perales, and he was still quite effective. 

The Red Sox's brass are well aware of how impressive Perales season has been and showed a ton of confidence in the budding star to move him up the ladder so quickly.

“For us to push somebody at his age, who started off in the Dominican this year at the academy working out, to make his way to Salem is something we don’t see often,” Red Sox assistant GM Eddie Romero told MassLive's Christopher Smith. “So it’s pretty special.”

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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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