The Nationals are giving Luis Perales his first big league shot.
Washington is recalling the right-hander from Triple-A Rochester, with the move first reported on X by @saborio30play. To make room, the Nationals optioned righty Jake Bird after tonight’s loss to Colorado.
Because Perales is already on the 40-man roster, no additional roster move is needed. It’s a recall on paper, but for the 23-year-old, it marks his first promotion to the majors.
Perales has spent the entire season on optional assignment in Rochester, and this is his first year in the Washington organization. The Nationals acquired him from Boston last offseason in a rare prospect-for-prospect trade, sending Jake Bennett the other way. That deal has already produced a debut on both sides: Bennett debuted in early May and has held a rotation spot for the Red Sox since the beginning of June, posting a 3.49 earned run average in his first 15 career starts.
Perales arrived in the system with more baggage on the health front. He missed most of the 2025 season while recovering from Tommy John surgery, though he’s been healthy this year aside from a brief injured list stint in late May.
In 96 1/3 innings for the Red Wings, he put up a 3.64 ERA while striking out 23.5% of opponents and getting grounders at a 47% clip. The downside has been command: he’s walked more than 13% of the batters he’s faced.
That profile matches the scouting line on Perales pretty closely. He brings big stuff, but the strike-throwing has lagged behind.
The Venezuela native has averaged 98.5 mph on his fastball and also mixes in a cutter, changeup and occasional slider. Washington has mostly developed him as a starter this season, though a few weeks ago the club began using him in 1-2 inning relief outings.
That shift may have been tied to workload management, but the control issues make a bullpen future very much on the table.
With Washington sitting at 7-16 in August, any faint playoff hope is gone, and the focus has shifted to evaluation over the final month. Perales now gets his first chance to show the staff what he can do, with an eye toward putting himself in the mix for an Opening Day role in 2027.
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