Modern MLB managers look at the big picture at the expense of a potentially historic single-game performance


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Twice in a span of four days, a pitcher in Major League Baseball was pulled with a perfect game intact.

First came Eury Pérez of the Marlins in his start against the Athletics. On Sunday, manager Clayton McCullough pulled Pérez after seven perfect innings and 92 pitches. Soon thereafter, reliever Lake Bachar walked a batter to end the (combined) perfecto bid and then allowed a single to end the no-hitter threat

Then came Pirates right-hander Jared Jones on Wednesday night. He twirled six perfect innings at the expense of the Braves before Pittsburgh manager Don Kelly gave Jones the Dugout Handshake of Removal prior to the seventh inning of a scoreless game. Pittsburgh's shot at the first combined perfect game in MLB history ended when Jones' replacement, Mason Montgomery, permitted a one-out single in the seventh. Jones, at the time of his removal, was at a modest 77 pitches, and Atlanta went on to win 3-0.

One might be tempted to ask: What gives?

First, this is not new. MLB decision-makers don't particularly care about perfect games and no-hitters, as they're aware that the regular season is a six-month slog with serious considerations that reach beyond a given game or single-game performance -- even a potentially historic one. They're likewise aware that even one isolated high-pitch outing can exact a toll down the road, especially in this current era of maxed-out velocity.

That's been the case for a while.

If it's a veteran arm with an established record of health and durability, the calculus is different. The circumstances were much different when, earlier on Wednesday, Blue Jays manager John Schneider let Dylan Cease set a career-high pitch count in pursuit of a no-hitter, which he lost in the ninth.

In the cases of Pérez and Jones, though, two sets of numbers are worth considering:

23 and 24;
98.1 and 98.6.

The first set includes Pérez's and Jones' current ages, and the second set includes Pérez's and Jones' current average fastball velocities. Let's also add two dates for your review:

April 8, 2024;
May 21, 2025.

Those are the dates of Pérez's and Jones' respective Tommy John surgeries -- or an internal brace procedure in Jones' case. Yes, each young hard-thrower has a history of arm troubles. Those three things -- youth, high velocity, and prior major arm surgery -- add up to mean the moundsman in question is going to be treated with caution, especially when it's not, say, a game that decides the outcome of a playoff game or something of similar import.

In Pérez's case, Sunday's start was his third since missing almost a month with a muscle strain in his thigh. Entering the game, the Marlins had a pitch limit in mind and McCullough stuck to it.

"Going into this game, 90 plus a batter was a pitch count that I felt comfortable with him coming back off the time on the IL and us looking to play beyond the season," McCullough, the Marlins' second-year manager, told reporters. "Eury's gonna be an important part of that. Yeah, he had it really going today and I totally get it. There was a part of my heartstrings pulling at his opportunity to keep going, but I have to think about Eury, one, and our organization, our team, and what's best moving forward and giving us a chance to win games. I made a calculated decision of where he was with his pitch count."

As for Jones, the 2026 season marked his return to the mound after missing all of 2025 because of that aforementioned elbow surgery. He's been on strict pitch counts all season as he gets built back up. Wednesday's outing was Jones' eighth of the season and his season-high is just 81 pitches.

Maybe it's frustrating from the fan standpoint to see bids for history cut short, not because they're ended on the field but rather because of managerial discretion. With Pérez and Jones and any other young hurler who flirts with perfection in such a way, though, the cautious approach is one embraced by every organization in MLB right now.

It's understandable, and it's not going away.

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