Bless You Boys · Jul 31, 2018
Shoulder inflammation ends Franklin Perez’ season
When the Detroit Tigers acquired RHP Franklin Perez from the Houston Astros in the Justin Verlander deal 11 months ago, they shut the talented young pitcher down quickly. That wasn’t a huge surprise. Perez was just 19 years of age, and didn’t have much mileage on his arm as of yet. Perez quickly seized the top spot in prospect rankings of the Tigers’ system due to his advanced command and deep repertoire of pitches. Taking it slow with a teenager who was the centerpiece of the trade made a lot of sense as he was already well ahead of the game for a pitcher his age. It was assumed that in this, his age 20 season, he’d be stretched out to a full workload.