Red Sox right-hander Luis Perales will undergo Tommy John surgery next week, Chris Cotillo of MassLive reports on X. The young righty will therefore miss the remainder of this season and likely much of 2025 as well.
It’s an unfortunate blow for Perales, who impressed the Red Sox enough to get a 40-man roster spot in November. Though he had not yet reached the Double-A level, the Sox were concerned enough about losing him in the Rule 5 draft to select him in November.
Now 21, he was signed as an international amateur out of Venezuela in 2019. The pandemic canceled the minor leagues in 2020 and then injuries limited Perales to just two innings in 2021. He was able to make a bit of progress in 2022, tossing 35 2/3 innings between the Complex League and Single-A, with a combined earned run average of 1.77 that year.
He really took a step forward last year, splitting his time between Single-A and High-A. He tossed 89 2/3 innings over 21 starts with a 3.91 ERA and 29.3% strikeout rate. His 12.7% walk rate was on the high side but perhaps understandable for a developing pitcher who had missed a lot of time.
Things had been moving along nicely here in 2024, as he made seven good High-A starts and got bumped to Double-A for two outings there. He had struck out 38.9% of batters faced on the year while dropping his walk rate to 8.3%, leading to a 2.94 ERA, though those will now go down as his final numbers for the year with the news of his surgery.
It’s always frustrating when a pitcher requires Tommy John surgery, with its recovery timeline of 14 to 18 months. But it’s especially tough in this instance as Perales has already missed so much time but was seemingly on a good track of late. He’ll now be unable to continue his development this year and won’t be able to do much in 2025 either.
Since he was added to the 40-man roster, he is in the first of his three option years and he will have one option year left by the end of 2025. However, teams are often granted a fourth option when a player missed significant time due to injury. The Sox could recall him and add him to the 60-day injured list if they want to use his roster spot on someone else, but doing so would mean giving Perales major league pay and service time.
Luis Perales is the Red Sox top starting pitcher prospect! He has the potential to be a mid rotation or better starter in the MLB. Obviously, this will delay his arrival time in Boston.
Does a minor leaguer on the 40 man roster get paid the major league min?
@Texas Outlaw
A minor leaguer on the 40-man roster does not automatically get paid the major league minimum salary. Their salary depends on whether they are in the major leagues or the minor leagues at any given time.
Major League Salary: If the player is in the major leagues, they receive at least the major league minimum salary, which is $720,000 for the 2024 season.
Minor League Salary: If the player is in the minor leagues but on the 40-man roster, they typically receive a higher salary than other minor leaguers, but it is not the major league minimum. Instead, their salary is determined by the terms of their minor league contract. For players on their first major league contract, the minimum salary for time spent in the minor leagues is usually around $60,000 per season, while players on their second or subsequent major league contracts may earn more.
There is also this general breakdown of salaries by each level:
baseballamerica.com/stories/how-much-are-minor-lea…
Old – Why would any player on a minor league contract playing in the minor leagues get paid a MLB salary?
@Fever Pitch Guy
When did I mention that?
Thank you!
No.
He doesnt get paid the major league min while in the minors.
But, the Red Sox may want to promote him to Major Leagues, so that they can put him on 60-day IL and open up a roster spot. (Thats if they feel a crunch on their 40-man roster, and want to promote/trade for someone, that is not on the 40-man). The only drawback to this is you start Perales’s MLB clock when you promote him.
Absolutely horrible he was having a phenomenal year and really was boosting his stock. Feel for you Sox fans
Cr – On behalf of Red Sox Nation, thank you.
We saw this coming though.
Thats a blow to the system
Terrible news, and the other shoe hasn’t dropped yet–still haven’t heard how bad Angel Bastardo’s injury is, and his appeared to observers to be the more obvious possibility of a torn UCL–or at least more serious damage.
Why have you foresaken us Lord!
Troy – God is not happy with Red Sox ownership. They have broken too many commandments.
Understood. Will begin public flagellation as penance upon the morrow.
I prefer public flatulation
How dare the Red Sox build a team from the inside.
Fever, not sure about commandments, but, do you remember the Five Commitments that Henry, Werner, and Lucchino put out when they were first taking ownership of the club?
How many do you remember, without looking them up?
GASox – Ya got me on this one, I don’t remember any of it.
From an old news article:
“”After Henry, Werner, Lucchino and their partners were chosen as the winning group to buy the Red Sox, Principal Owner John Henry called it “a new day”, and the new owners immediately set an ambitious agenda for the club in the form of five commitments:
To field a team worthy of the fans’ support
To preserve all that’s good about Fenway Park and to take that experience to a higher level
To market aggressively to a new, broad region
To be active participants in the community
To end the Curse of the Bambino and win World Championships for Boston, New England and Red Sox Nation””
I’d say they’re losing their way these days. It never ceases to amaze me at the obscure stuff I remember from thin air, and yet simple things elude my grasp on certain days.
GASox – Very interesting, thank you!
#1 – They did back then, but not since 2019.
#2 – I think this depends on whether or not the Fenway sightline is included in that promise.
Check out this short video and let me know if you agree Fenway Corners renderings appear to place a huge monstrosity behind the Monster, likely as a way to add premium viewing from outside the park.
youtube.com/watch?v=FaNBZzpsHCE
#3 – Market aggressively to a new, broad region? Again I think they did back then, but not recently. The Red Sox don’t have the same appeal in China and the DR that they once did.
#4 – Active community participants? All indications are they accomplished that.
#5 – End the curse? Yes, of course. Win championships? Depends on how you view that sentence. Did they mean just more than one? Or did they mean always have the goal of winning them? Sure seems like they are now saying “You have your four championships, so don’t expect any more”.
As for your last sentence, I just wrote about that a couple weeks ago. It’s normal to clearly remember things from the distant past, while being forgetful of things from just a few days/hours or even minutes earlier. That’s because when we get past 40 our memory already has so much stored in it that it’s far more difficult for newer things to find available space. When my dad was in his 80’s he couldn’t remember what happened a few minutes prior, but he clearly remembered things that occurred decades earlier.
The brain is a fascinating thing my friend.
Can anyone explain to me what the last paragraph of this article is talking about:
“Since he was added to the 40-man roster, he is in the first of his three option years and he will have one option year left by the end of 2025. However, teams are often granted a fourth option when a player missed significant time due to injury. The Sox could recall him and add him to the 60-day injured list if they want to use his roster spot on someone else, but doing so would mean giving Perales major league pay and service time.”
I must be having a chemo moment. Perales has never been on the 26 man. He wasnt injured while on the 26-man roster. He doesn’t need to be added to the 26 man in the offseason. There’s no reason for him to be called up in 2025 while recovering, and, no option should be burned in 2025 since he isn’t likely to have any time spent with the big league club… no?
Whenever he returns from TJ rehab he should be a normal minor leaguer with 2 intact option years remaining until boston elects to call him up to either big league ST or the major league club…. shouldn’t he?
Never mind… I guess in theory he would have 20 days on the minor league roster which would meet the requirement… right? Things sometimes make sense, then don’t, then do again, and, I was asking the question in some.version of the wrong manner.
Players on the 40 man roster are optioned to the minors at the start of the season. Thus he receives the minor league portion of that deal, but loses an option year. Similar dilemma next year, assuming they option him again. Possible that Perales runs out of options before establishing himself.
Happens to many players that get hurt in the minors which is why the team could seek a fourth year option. Suggest in the next CBA that it be automatic on surgeries that sideline a player for 80% of a season (can run into the following year). Just make it a player’s option.