Eury Perez is Back. Grant Taylor is an Anomaly

Eury Perez, Grant Taylor, Sawyer Gipson-Long

• Marlins Eury Perez has returned from surgery with a few changes (3 IP, 4 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 5 K). He has a new sinker. The pitch is dead-zone, sitting 98 mph with 15” vertical break and 13” arm-side movement (the shape of most four-seamers). Given the nature of his spin (high efficiency), he’s probably not going to achieve a shape with more drop or run. The utility of the pitch to right-handed hitters makes sense, however, and the velocity will help protect it. The Marlins also switched his curveball to a spiked sweeper orientation (see below). This allowed him to trade about 1 mph (now sitting 80 mph) for a lot more movement. His curve now has -6” vertical break with 11” glove-side. His old curveball averaged 1” vertical break and 4” glove-side (basically another slider). It’s more differentiated from his slider now. 🐠

  • Perez’s slot has dropped post-surgery as well, which has affected his four-seam shape. The pitch averaged 1 mph harder than his 2023 fastball (98.5 mph), which might tick back to 98 in time, but more interesting is that he lost 2” vertical break. He’s now averaging 16.5” vertical break from a 5.9’ release compared to 18” from a 6.1’ release in 2023. We’ll see what Statcast has for his arm angle when it populates. We’ve seen multiple pitchers drop their arm angle slightly post-surgery, most notably Spencer Strider. Eury is the one who looks like he’s held his velo the most, which is an encouraging sign. I am mostly hesitant about pitchers post-surgery. The Marlins have no incentive to push Perez. But I’d expect him to be great on a per-inning basis (~3.80 ERA). 2026 wheels up is the goal here.

Eury Perez’s New Spiked Sweeper

• White Sox Grant Taylor with an electric debut from a pitch shape standpoint (1 IP, 12 pitches, 10 strikes). His four-seamer averaged 100.5 mph with 16” vertical break and 2” arm-side movement from a 5.9’ release with 7.4’ extension—plus velocity and extension, with average shape and less arm-side. His release point is further toward the plate than 98% of pitchers (mechanics below). Just 1.7% of all pitches in 2024 thrown from pitchers 6’3” or shorter are from extensions at 7.3’ or greater. Aka, he’s odd. The cut-ride fastball shape at that velocity will work. 🔥

  • Taylor also has three breaking balls, all of which have more drop than average for their velocity. My favorite is his slider, which averaged -3” vertical break with 5.5” glove-side break at 87 mph. Brad Keller and George Kirby are the only other pitchers in baseball this year with sliders that have that much depth, averaging 87 mph or greater to still maintain >5” glove-side. He’s presumably the White Sox’s future closer.

Grant Taylor’s big-extension mechanics (June 10, 2025)

• Tigers Sawyer Gipson-Long went 4.2 IP, 3 H, ER, 5 K as a bulk guy in the Tigers’ deployment of pitching chaos, his second outing of 2025. The interesting thing here is that his arm angle is unchanged from 2023, and yet we’re seeing a few shape changes. First on his four-seamer, which has the same vertical break (~16”), but added 2” arm-side movement and increased spin efficiency from 80% to 89% (he’s pronating through the ball more). His slider has also gained just 1 mph but lost about 4” horizontal break. It feels like a worse shape, but FanGraphs Stuff+ sees no difference. I’m intrigued by SGL due to his body traits (big extension) and changeup performance. How the Tigers use him when Reese Olson returns will dictate how much upside there is in the profile from an SP standpoint. 🐅