Browsing: Luis

Luis Perales Picks Up Where He Left Off For Red Sox

In the midst of a breakout season in 2024, righthander Luis Perales suffered a torn UCL that required Tommy John surgery.

When he returned to action at the end of the 2025 minor league season, roughly 15 months after surgery, it remained apparent that the 22-year-old Perales possesses stuff matched by few in the Red Sox system.Â

Perales has a high-octane arsenal—albeit with the sort of control issues typically seen in pitchers returning from TJ. His fastball reaches triple digits, and he proved capable of getting swings and misses on his cutter, slider and splitter.Â

Perales had been in Double-A at the time of his injury, and made one appearance back in Portland before a pair of season-ending appearances for Triple-A Worcester.

His ability to work in the zone with his 97-101 mph fastball proved inconsistent in those initial outings and into the Arizona Fall League. That represents an obvious area of focus, as will be his ability to land his splitter in or near the zone.

Perales overhauled his secondary pitches in 2024 to incorporate a splitter and cutter, while reshaping his slider. That was evidenced by his first career Triple-A outing in September, when he threw only cutters, sliders and splitters.

The righthander added considerable strength while rehabbing, and if he can throw enough strikes, his four-pitch arsenal gives him a chance to emerge as a midrotation starter or possibly a key reliever if the 6-foot-1 Perales does not address his control.

That sets him up to open 2026 in the Triple-A rotation, unless the Red Sox find it too tempting to have him open the year in the big league bullpen.

“Itâ€s been a long road,†Perales said via translator after he reached Worcester. “Iâ€m kind of surprised that Iâ€m here, but Iâ€m happy to be here.â€

SOX YARNS

— With director of amateur scouting Devin Pearson leaving to become the Nationals assistant GM, the Red Sox promoted Jake Bruml from assistant scouting director to head of the department.

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PSG coach Luis Enrique eyes future editions of Barcelona spectacle

Paris Saint-Germain manager Luis Enrique could only admire the spectacle on display Wednesday night at the Olympic Stadium.

What he saw was his PSG side rally for victory against his former team Barcelona to secure a 2-1 win and a perfect record in the Champions League after two matches of the league phase.

Gonçalo Ramos capped the comeback in second-half stoppage time in front of a stunned home crowd, who saw their team lose its first match of the season and for the third time in a row at home to PSG following defeats in the 2021 and 2024 Champions League knockout rounds.

“We’ve seen an excellent game,” Luis Enrique said. “When you see two teams who don’t kick each other, who go out to play and to do damage with the ball, you get a really good spectacle. [Barcelona] were better until their goal. We recovered well. We were better in the second half.

“We played really well. It was difficult at first. Barcelona have a lot of quality. We made mistakes in the first 20 minutes. We were better after the break, we deserved it. It’s a big win. It’s always hard playing against Barça. It’s an important win for confidence. Last year, we struggled in the league phase.”

The game also highlighted the stellar play of PSG outside backs Achraf Hakimi, who set up Ramos for the winning goal, and Nuno Mendes, who assisted on PSG’s opening goal and largely shut down Barça star Lamine Yamal in the second half.

Yamal got off to a promising start Wednesday, awing the crowd with a great run just minutes into the match at Montjuic stadium. But he couldn’t do much more after that, with the 23-year-old Mendes containing him most of the time.

“I’m very pleased to see the younger players thriving in this match; learning, playing well, impressing our fans,” Luis Enrique said after the match. “We consistently play rivals of a really high level. The most important thing for me is our DNA, our attitude — as a squad and as a club — and that’s what we saw today.”

The 18-year-old Yamal made his first start for Barcelona since August because of an injury sustained while playing with Spain’s national team during the international break in September. He came off the bench for the Catalan club in its 2-1 win against Real Sociedad in LaLiga on Sunday.

PSG is the the first team to win three straight road games against Barcelona in major European competitions, while Hansi Flick’s side was looking to win a sixth consecutive match across all competitions.

Luis Enrique did not want to read too much into the result with just two rounds of the Champions League played thus far, and a good chance his team will see Barcelona at some point down the line as the tournament progresses.

“This is just one result so in no case [does it prove anything],” Luis Enrique said. “Barça are among the candidates to win the Champions League. They play really well. They are a top level side. This is just the start of the competition. There are six games left; we will see what happens.

“But I have no doubts because I like how they play. There are not many teams with a clear identity like theirs. Barça are clearly among the favourites with us. But it’s just getting started. Let’s see how everyone arrives to the knockout rounds.”

ESPN’s Sam Marsden and The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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Barcelona-PSG will thrill the whole world, except for Luis Enrique

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    Graham HunterSep 30, 2025, 11:19 AM ET

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      Graham Hunter is a Barcelona-based freelance writer for ESPN.com who specializes in La Liga and the Spanish national team.

Barcelona hosting Paris Saint-Germain in the UEFA Champions League has a big chance of being the best, most dramatic, thrilling match anywhere in the world this week.

Last time they met, 17 months ago, the Catalans won brilliantly in the French capital and the Parisians replied with a punishing victory in Barcelona. That tit-for-tat battle treated us to 10 goals while former Barça coach Luis Enrique inspired his new team through to the Champions League semifinals in his debut season.

Given that eight of the top 12 players in last week’s Ballon d’Or ranking were scheduled to decorate Wednesday’s match, there has been understandable focus on the injury lists: Raphinha, Gavi, Ousmane Dembélé, Marquinhos, Désiré Doué and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia all out; plus doubts of varying degrees surround João Neves, Fabián Ruiz and Vitinha.

But this is a meeting that can leave participants in tatters, irrespective of the physical or mental state in which they approach it.

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Of the three I have in mind, only two are scheduled to go toe-to-toe again this time: Luis Enrique and Ronald Araújo. The other is Xavi Hernández, who, defeated and sent off on the night in April last year, only coached the club he passionately loves for seven more matches before they sacked him.

With that glimpse of Champions League glory (a potential semifinal against Borussia Dortmund and what would, hypothetically, have been Barça’s third Wembley final, this time a Clásico against Real Madrid lay ahead) while leading 4-2 on aggregate with 72% of the tie played, Xavi’s hopes of keeping his job disappeared. Such are the vagaries of football management.

However, it’s the two survivors who should interest you.

Since that season, since knocking out the club he adores, at which he’s a socio (club member), and the club where he won 16 trophies as player and coach across 14 years, Luis Enrique is à la mode, as the French would say. He’s won nine of the 11 trophies available to PSG over two incredible years, including his second treble, and, as recently as last week, won the Ballon d’Or-Johan Cruyff Trophy 2025 as coach of the year by a landslide. But what subsequently went completely unnoticed is how much it cost him, and his family, to go through that 2024 ordeal of eliminating Barcelona from the Champions League.

PSG’s Champions League quarterfinal win over Barcelona weighed on manager Luis Enrique, who spent 14 years at the Catalan club. Pedro Salado/Getty Images

I’m fortunate to count him as a friend and he was generous with his time, and our access, when, at that very moment, we were filming our “No Teneis Ni P— Idea” (“You Have No F—ing Idea”) documentary about him. A couple of days after Araújo was sent off in the second leg and PSG ran riot, turning a 4-2 deficit into a 6-4 aggregate win, we fulfilled a pre-agreed shoot with Luis Enrique in his office at PSG’s huge, modern and rather soulless Poissy campus. It’s a new build, it boasts fantastic facilities and it’s the HQ from which PSG planned, and effected, their thrilling all-out assault on European domination.

But it’s vast, it can feel like a cavernous, empty movie set. That gray afternoon, there were hardly any people about, the mood was somber and he simply told us the truth as he felt it then; times have changed, but this was a stark picture of a man’s affections divided and the cost of doing his job brilliantly.

That day, he told us: “I never want to have to face Barça again in the next 10 years. Not once! For my sake and for the family!”

He added: “It was ‘heavy’ for my family, for my friends, for me. Wow! Too much!”

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The truth that emerged is that although he hails from the beautiful city of Gijón in the northern region of Asturias, Barcelona and its environs are his true home now and always will be. Moreover, the affection he and all his family hold for the Blaugrana club is deeply engrained.

Luis Enrique’s nearest family, his Catalan wife and two children, admitted that they were deeply conflicted about attending the second leg given their premonitions about it developing into a no-win situation. Get knocked out and it’s heartbreak for their husband and father, progress and there was bound to be a hangover feeling.

Enter stage right the other loser from that night: Araújo.

Luis Enrique and his PSG analysts identified the Uruguay international as good … but not good enough if the correct pressure points were pushed. In a scene that he allowed us to use in the documentary (the title of which the PSG fans used for the banner welcoming Luis Enrique back to Parc de Princes following his Ballon d’Or-Johan Cruyff Trophy win), he dictates to his players precisely how he wants them to isolate and then exploit Araujo’s weaknesses.

During the team meeting the night before the match at Montjuïc, the PSG coach told his players: “This gentleman is Araújo. A top-level footballer. No question. But the Barça player with the most problems.

“Every time the ball goes towards him, in whatever situation, while the ball’s still in movement we’re already closing his passing line and then pressing him. We let Araújo come out with the ball. Whenever he does that, we isolate him, and we press him.”

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Video evidence showed that Araújo was eager to get on the ball, a wholehearted leader and defender, but deficient in his use of possession when pressed. Prone to getting rid, rather than remaining calm. So PSG closed down other passes for Marc-André ter Stegen and the rest of the home defenders, steered the ball to the Uruguayan’s feet, and then sprung the trap. It was brutal.

In less than half an hour, the prize arrived. Araújo, on the ball, unaware PSG had steered this into happening, was pressed and gifted a wayward pass to the PSG midfield, Bradley Barcola set off on a sprint toward Barça’s goalmouth and, then, a last-man foul from the harassed and no doubt embarrassed Uruguayan resulted. Free kick, red card and the balance of the entire tie tilted. Precisely as Luis Enrique had predicted.

Postmatch, Xavi lamented that competing 10 vs. 11 at that level, against a rival like PSG, was practically impossible. Luis Enrique deserves an NB (good note) here.

He also demonstrated to his obedient team that PSG could (would) easily score from the edge of the box because of how Barcelona defended (this also happened) and inspired the type of (rare) pressing from Kylian Mbappé that coaches, including Xabi Alonso at the moment, have tried in vain to draw from the brilliant striker. PSG romped home, and when they finally made things safe, at 4-1 with a minute left, Luis Enrique let out a little of the bottled-up emotion he was feeling.

The next day, in fact days, were full of nasty, venomous, studs-in vitriol from Catalan media and social media, including comments like: “That was Mourinho-style behavior,” “Neither Xavi nor Pep Guardiola would ever celebrate coaching a win against Barcelona like that” and “Disgraceful, a complete lack of respect.”

Disappointment often channels itself as anger and vitriol, but this was over the top and did damage. Araújo’s confidence and reputation were both badly hit and, ironically, it’s only really now that his importance to the team and self-belief have been fully restored.

On that dank, quiet, reflective afternoon in Poissy, Luis Enrique told us: “Those were two brutal weeks. For the family too … well everyone, naturally. Really hard, emotionally. We were burned out. I’m in pieces.

“Honestly, for me it would’ve been much easier playing against Madrid! Much! All of that, even though we won. I’d hate to think about if it had finished badly. No way. I’d rather not have played them.”

Now here he goes again. New rival in the Barça dugout, defending champion, injury-hit team but up against the club he (deep in his heart) feels strong emotion for. Not a knockout this time, granted, but loads and loads on the line. Emotions, pride and how he’s greeted by the Catalan fans and media, not least.

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