Just Yesterday, we wrote about how the Nats do not have a ton of options to close games with Jose A. Ferrer gone. Well, Paul Toboni might have made a trade that landed the Nats their closer of the future in Luis Perales. The Nats should continue to develop Perales as a starter, but if he ends up in the bullpen, he has the stuff to close.
If you missed it, Paul Toboni called up his old team to make a deal. It was a rare prospect for prospect swap. The Nats sent the high floor lefty Jake Bennett to Boston
for flamethrowing righty Luis Perales. If both guys hit their ceilings, the Nats will comfortably get the better of this move, but Perales is a higher risk prospect.
If everything totally clicks for Perales, he could potentially be a number 2 starter. He has the stuff to accomplish that. Back in 2024, he was trending in that direction when he posted a 2.94 ERA with 56 strikeouts in 33.2 innings. However, his arm gave out on him and he underwent Tommy John Surgery.
He came back at the end of this season. The stuff was very much intact, but his command was not. That is not too unusual for a prospect freshly off of Tommy John. Command is usually the last thing to come back. The stuff was electric though. Out of the 43 triple digit fastballs in the Arizona Fall League, Perales threw 20 of them.
Given his insane velocity, his injury history and his smaller 6’1 frame, the bullpen feels like a real possibility. Signed out of Venezuela for only $75,000, Perales was a big hit for the Red Sox, but has only thrown 163.1 pro innings. Obviously it would be ideal for him to stick as a starter, but if he has to go to the bullpen he has special upside. Perales’ fastball, cutter, slider and splitter can all be electric when he is on.
The fastball averages 99 MPH and has a ton of life as well. He generates so much arm speed with his smaller frame. However, his fastball command can be spotty. A lot of the time Perales actually commands his cutter better than his fastball. Luckily for him, the cutter is also nasty. It sits at 91 MPH and can get whiffs as well as soft contact.
He also throws a traditional slider at around 86 MPH to go along with it. Most evaluators like the cutter more, but the slider gives him another option. Against lefties, he deploys a nasty splitter as an out pitch. It can be inconsistent, but when he has a good feel for the pitch, it can be untouchable.
This profile just screams closer to me. A smaller guy with insane stuff, control question marks and durability concerns is best suited to a relief role. Perales’ career high in innings is only 89.2 and he has only thrown more than 50 innings once.
However, given Paul Toboni’s knowledge of the Red Sox farm system, I am confident in his evaluation of Perales. Despite not throwing a ton in the Minor Leagues, Perales should be in the big leagues relatively soon. He is already on the 40-man roster and only has one option year left.
With that in mind, he will probably get some run in the big leagues at some point this season. He is going to have to stick in the big leagues in 2027 due to the lack of option years. With his stuff, I am confident that he will be able to stick in some capacity.
The stuff is truly world class and can overwhelm even MLB hitters. Before going down with Tommy John, Perales showed improved strike-throwing, only walking 8% of hitters in 2024. The command was not there in a very small sample size in 2025, but as he gets further removed from Tommy John, that should improve.
Sure, this is a risk, but it is a risk worth taking for the Nats. There are not many pitchers who can do the things that Luis Perales can do. Jake Bennett is a nice prospect, but his ceiling is capped. He does not have the kind of swing and miss stuff that Perales does. Bennett can be a nice back of the rotation piece, but it is tough to see much more than that.
If everything works for Perales, he can be in the middle or even at the front of a rotation. However, the more I look at him, a high leverage relief role seems like Perales’ most likely role. If the control does not bounce back, there will be issues. However, Paul Toboni was with the Red Sox during Perales’ recovery, so he knows more about him than most.
This is a real swing for the fences from Paul Toboni. There is risk but I really think that Luis Perales has a chance to be the Nats closer as soon as 2027. Not many pitchers have 99 MPH heaters with elite ride as well as a plus cutter, a potentially plus splitter and a solid slider. Perales is doing all of this at just 22 years old. Pitchers like this do not grow on trees.
