What seemed like a simple stretch has landed Marlins pitcher Eury Perez on the injured list for the foreseeable future.
The Marlins announced Friday that they placed Perez, 23, on the 15-day injured list with a right gracilis strain, and the right-hander is expected to miss at least eight weeks, according to MLB.com.
Perez seemingly suffered the injury while stretching in between innings during his start against the Blue Jays on Wednesday.
Video showed Perez getting loose outside of the dugout when he abruptly grabbed his right thigh and quickly sat down due to the sudden pain.
“I was just having a conversation with our pitching coach and suddenly I felt tightness right there in my leg and I couldn’t get up,” Pérez said via an interpreter, per MLB.com. “I would say on a scale from 1-10, I would give a 10. It was very painful.
“I knew I was not going to be able to go out there, and that was the same thought from our coaches, and we decided to go inside and just take a look at it.”
The gracilis is a thin and fragile muscle that runs vertically in the inner thigh up to the groin.
Unfortunately for Perez, he suffered the injury in his most dominant outing of the season thus far, striking out nine batters and giving up just three hits through four scoreless innings for Miami.
Perez has experienced a slow start to 2026, pitching to a 3-6 record with a 4.60 ERA and 72 strikeouts through 12 starts.
His injury does come at a significant cost for the Marlins’ pitching rotation, as they traded starters Edward Cabrera and Ryan Weathers this offseason with the expectation that Perez would take the next step this year, while hoping that Sandy Alcantara would return to his former Cy Young form.
The Marlins have a 21-31 record headed into Friday’s game against the Mets.
