Brewers’ Perrin more than just a pitcher
PHOENIX – Jon Perrin is a man with a plan. And an opinion.
With a bachelor’s degree already in his back pocket and law school beckoning, the 24-year-old is first trying to achieve his dream of pitching in the major leagues.
He’s taken a big step toward that this spring with the Milwaukee Brewers, moving from the minor-league complex and across the parking lot at the team’s Maryvale complex to suit up alongside Chase Anderson, Zach Davies and Yovani Gallardo.
And while his focus is undoubtedly on trying to advance up the organizational ladder, Perrin still finds time for non-baseball activities. So if he’s not reading or dabbling in the stock market, he’s engaging others on such topics as politics, immigration, the opioid crisis or the NCAA on Twitter (@jperrin46).
“It’s just kind of a platform for anybody, really, including me as an athlete to voice my opinion,” Perrin said. “I do have strong feelings about certain things. I want to be a lawyer in the future, so law, politics are things I enjoy. Anything, sports — just to have a little banter back and forth with new people.
“It’s definitely interesting, trying to get a different viewpoint. It’s a way for you to voice your opinion but then get feedback on how other people see the world. And I think that’s the biggest thing – just trying to have that open discourse and trying to be civil.
“It can be pretty hard. If that doesn’t happen, then there’s that nice block button.”
Perrin was a 27th-round pick of the Brewers out of Oklahoma State in 2015, and it’s been pinpoint control rather than a blazing fastball that helped him to rise four levels in just over two full seasons. In 62 career appearances, Perrin has amassed a walk / strikeout ratio of 5.43 (277 strikeouts to 51 walks) and issued an average of just 1.50 walks per nine innings.
His most impressive showing came in 2016, when he struck out 47 while issuing just one walk — in the last of his six starts — at Class A Wisconsin. Perrin also made stops at advanced Class A Brevard County and Class AA Biloxi that year and finished with 144 strikeouts with 23 walks in 19 total appearances (150 innings).
“That’s just a product of a lot of hard work,” he said of his uncommon control. “I had a great pitching coach in college, Rob Walton, and that was his thing. He said, ‘Real estate and pitching are the same — the three most important things are location, location, location.’
“He was always very hard-nosed about fastball command first; without that you can’t do anything. So I’ve taken that as I’ve left college and went to the pro game, and that still plays. So, fastball command is what I base my whole game off of, and then being able to get ahead in counts to set up the breaking ball and give myself leverage.”
Perrin’s education has given him an enviable amount of leverage as well.
After completing his first half-season as a pro in 2015, he took the LSAT. In April 2016 he learned he’d passed it and Perrin spent that off-season applying to law schools. Then right around this time last spring he learned he’d been accepted at the University of Kansas.
Perrin decided to keep chasing his dream on the diamond, however, and spent all of last season at Biloxi. With 12 starts among his 23 appearances (he missed a month with a pinched nerve in his back), he finished with a 5-3 record, 2.91 earned-run average, 91 strikeouts and 21 walks.
Perrin closed out 2017 by pitching in the Arizona Fall League, which is considered a finishing school for likely future major-leaguers.
Now he finds himself among the next wave of pitchers in the Brewers’ minorleague system that stands on the precipice of the major leagues, although another strong showing this season — most likely at Class AAA Colorado Springs — is going to be necessary.
Taking that final step is the ultimate goal for Perrin. But if he doesn’t make it, he knows he has a heck of a fallback plan.
“My (LSAT) score’s good for five years, through 2020. So if something happens with my baseball career and it comes up short in the next two seasons, I still have that available to me,” said Perrin, a native of Olathe, Kan. “And if I’m still playing baseball in 2020 that means I’m doing something right and it means, OK, we can really put that on the back burner and just try and play this game as long as I can.
“It’s always an option for me. I can always go back and retake the entrance exam. For me, it’s something that’s definitely on the agenda still. It’s almost like a freedom thing. I can go out there and play with freedom and lay it all out there and not really have any fear of failure. Because even if I do go out there and fail, I have a really solid foundation with my education to be able to fall back on.”
The 6-foot-4, 215-pound Perrin’s goal this season is to become a true four-pitch pitcher and add a consistent curveball to go with his sinker, slider and changeup. Minor-league pitching coordinator Chris Hook coached Perrin at Biloxi last season and believes with some more refinement he can get himself into the discussion at the major-league level.
“He’s an interesting guy. He’s had a lot of success,” Hook said. “He’s the ultimate strike thrower. He’s a very cerebral guy. He understands game plans. I think he’s learning how to sink the ball a little bit more, but he’s got a swing-and-miss slider and he competes his (butt) off, he really does. That is probably his best attribute — he’s a competitor.
“Whenever you have those qualities, at least in the minor leagues, you’re going to have some good things happen.”
Perrin’s two Cactus League appearances to this point have been a mixed bag. He was hit hard in his debut over the weekend, surrendering five hits (including a home run) and four runs in 2⁄3 of an inning against the San Francisco Giants, then bounced back by striking out the side with a walk mixed in against the Cleveland Indians on Monday.
“He’ll have to make the Triple-A team most likely and then when you’re there, who knows what happens?” manager Craig Counsell said. “You’re pretty close. He’s done well for himself so far. He wasn’t a high draft pick and he’s worked his way through pretty good, pitched in the Fall League this off-season for us. “He’s certainly on the radar.”
At some point, Perrin will head back across the parking lot to begin preparing for his minor-league season. He’ll continue to pick the brains of his veteran counterparts in the meantime because, as far as Perrin is concerned, there’s always more to be learned.
“That’s really what this camp is all about — especially for a young guy like me to just be able to ask questions and learn and see how those other guys do it,” he said. “It’s all about education, baby.
“Be a sponge.”