Eury Pérez right behind Alcantara on the comeback trail

This story was excerpted from Christina De Nicola's Marlins Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

MIAMI -- Shortly after Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara faced hitters for the first time in more than a year, right-hander Eury Pérez reached a recovery milestone of his own by making nine throws while playing catch from 45 feet. He will do so again on Thursday.

“He's worked hard,” manager Skip Schumaker said. “Him and Sandy were tied to the hip the entire rehab process. There's not many better people to look up to going through a rehab. They have been grinding and not happy about not pitching, and super motivated inside that clubhouse and in the weight room. It sucks, because I saw Sandy pitch off the mound thinking about, like, ‘What could have been?’ And then watching Eury play catch over there, I'm like, ‘You've got to be kidding me.’ Every team's going through stuff, but the future is obviously really bright, because those two arms you'll have back [in 2025].”

Pérez, now 21 years old, first experienced right elbow soreness on March 14 and alerted the training team after exiting his Grapefruit League outing the day before due to discomfort from a broken nail on his right middle finger.

When Pérez first traveled to Texas to see Dr. Keith Meister, testing revealed mild right elbow inflammation and no structural damage. Pérez began playing catch a couple days later, on March 23, per the recommendation of Meister, and he had been scheduled to progress to throwing a bullpen session. After Pérez felt tightness in his elbow during that session, Meister determined that Tommy John surgery with an internal brace was necessary on a second visit.

Like Alcantara, Pérez was just four months removed from his April 8 procedure when he began throwing again on Tuesday.

“It felt great,” Pérez said via interpreter Luis Dorante Jr. “I feel really good. Everybody around was very happy with the process, trainers, physicians that were there, following up. But it felt really good, very happy to be out there and toss the baseball, even if it was just a few throws.”

Pérez, who already had a mentorship with Alcantara before this setback, has leaned on Alcantara’s guidance even more. It has been a challenge for Pérez to stay positive after breaking out with a 149 ERA+ in 19 starts as a rookie in 2023.

“Just some steps down, you feel a little depressed that you are not on the field, playing the game that you love, helping the team, your teammates that you know that you can help them a lot,” said Pérez, who has gained 15 pounds of muscle since the surgery with help from Alcantara’s high-intensity training. “As you start thinking about the future, it's going to be brighter, it's going to be better, I'm going to be back and then things like that just get me out of that hole.”

Now that this first step has been taken in a throwing program, Pérez will work over the offseason with Major League physical therapist Andrew Turpin to continue the process.

So when might we see Pérez return to the big league mound?

“I don't have specifically a date I can tell you, but I will say, probably around the All-Star break, or after the All-Star break,” Pérez said. “For now, my focus is to continue getting stronger and follow my trainer, and all the things I have to do to get better.”