Article: Twins Sign Left-Handed Pitcher Martin Perez

[Tom Froemming]

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported that the Twins have come to an agreement with free agent left-handed starting pitcher Martin Perez. It's believed to be a one-year deal with a club option for 2020. Jon Heyman tweeted that the deal is for $3.5 million.

 

Perez, 27, has spent his entire career with Texas and has a 4.63 ERA in 141 games. He's coming off a rough 2018 in which he was demoted to the Rangers' bullpen.In 15 starts last season, Perez had a 6.78 ERA and .186 WHIP over 74 1/3 innings. He was much more successful after he was moved to the bullpen, pitching to a 2.45 ERA and 1.27 WHIP, though that was just a sample of 11 innings.

 

Perez was once among the top prospects in the game, topping out at No. 17 on Baseball America's Top 100 Prospect list. He made his major league debut as a 21-year-old, and his relative youth among free agents is one aspect that makes him unique.

 

Perez has never been able to overpower hitters, as his career 5.5 K/9 indicates, but he's a groundball machine. His career groundball rate is an excellent 51.1 percent. There were only two qualified starting pitchers who topped that mark in 2018.

 

Still, that low strikeout rate really limits his upside. That's always been curious to me, because it's not like Perez is a soft-tosser. His average fastball velocity was 92.7 mph last season, not far off from Jose Berrios and Kyle Gibson while being comfortably ahead of Jake Odorizzi.

 

But, of course, there's more to getting strikeouts than just velocity. Perez had the eighth-lowest swinging strike rate among the 173 pitchers who logged at least 80 innings in 2018. The changeup is considered his best pitch. Here's a look:

 

 

Despite the fact that he's pitched in a pretty hitter-friendly environment over his career, Perez actually has better numbers at home than on the road over his career. Still, maybe there's a case to be made that he's a good change of scenery candidate.

 

Taking a look at Perez's pitch usages over his career, it doesn't appear anybody with the Rangers ever really pressed him to tinker around. The biggest difference you see is that he threw his sinker more last year.

 

Download attachment: PerezPitches.jpeg

 

Just looking at that, I wonder what things might look like if Perez threw fewer fastballs and increased the usage of his changeup and slider. Just a thought.

 

So it seems the three main positives when it comes to Perez are his youth, the fact that he's left-handed and his ability to induce ground balls. It'll be interested to hear what the financial terms of the deal are and how the front office envisions him fitting into the big picture. The 40-man roster is full, so we'll also be keeping an eye out on who will be exposed to the waiver wire once the deal becomes official.

 

UPDATE: Jon Heyman is reporting the deal is for "about" $3.5 million. We may not know how exactly that's structured until the deal becomes official. It's worth noting that what was originally reported as Blake Parker's deal ($3.2 million) ended up being quite different in the end ($1.8 million plus incentives).

 

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[Winston Smith]

Looks like the missing piece. 

[mikelink45]

Here is what we got - he is left handed.  His record last year gave him a minus -0.9 WAR, 2 - 7, 6.22 era.1.78 whip.  Seven years total 43 49 4.63 era, 1.48 whip.  Did we just get better or does he repeat last year and make us worse?  I would sure like to see some signing where it was not surrounded by question marks.  Of course he was a Ranger and rangers and Indians rank high with the FO

[ChrisKnutson]

I could imagine the FO telling Perez that he’s got a legitimate shot at making the rotation, but ultimately plan on having him in the bullpen. And if that’s the case, then I can’t exactly call this a bad signing because Perez has got a pretty live arm for a lefty.

[Squirrel]

Blecht!

[Thrylos]

A quote from his Wikipedia page:

 

"He is compared to be a cross between Johan Santana and Greg Maddux by Jason Parks of Baseball Time in Arlington."

 

[mike8791]

I didn't realize the dumpster was that deep!  Who needs Robertson, Herrera, Ottavino, Allen, et.al.... we got Perez!!!!.   The Wonder Boys strike(out) again!  I didn't realize hubris was spelled F-A-L-V-I-N-E.

[darin617]

yuck. no clue what they are thinking with this signing. even an option for 2020 for a guy who should have been signed to a minor league deal.

 

losing what hope i have more everyday in them.

 

I would have rather seen Wade Miley signed for sure. no clue what they see in Perez.

 

 

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

I could imagine the FO telling Perez that he’s got a legitimate shot at making the rotation, but ultimately plan on having him in the bullpen. And if that’s the case, then I can’t exactly call this a bad signing because Perez has got a pretty live arm for a lefty.

hope you're right!

[Minfidel]

Are you sure Parks didn't say he was a cross between Jose Santana and Gord Maddux?

A quote from his Wikipedia page:

 

"He is compared to be a cross between Johan Santana and Greg Maddux by Jason Parks of Baseball Time in Arlington."

 

 

[Penthang]

Mikelink45, I strongly agree…there are way too many pieces on this roster with really big question marks. If things break right this could be a really good team but if they break the other way they could end up as a 62 win team. This signing is discouraging to me. It’s possible that the research department has identified something with him that shows upside that’s not obvious, but in the moment I was really hoping for a better signing than this.

[tarheeltwinsfan]

This is another curious move.

[HrbekRules]

Who else is excited for this season!

[Oldgoat_MN]

If I was 30 years younger I'd go find some random baby boy who's left handed and adopt him.

I have no millionaires to support me in my aging years.

Alas...

[Mike Sixel]

Uninspiring to say the most.

[jud6312]

[sweetmusicviola16]

Even if he's replacing Duffey, why replace bad with bad?

[jud6312]

I honestly don't understand this - regardless of what spin is put on it, or where they plan to use him

 

As a starter? Aside from experience, does he offer anything more than what we could reasonably expect from Mejia?

 

As a bullpen arm? Rogers has the main spot on lock. Maybe he's a better option Moya or Vazquez, but given his recent results, I'd roll the dice on one of the two and if they don't pan out find another dime-a-dozen lefty down the line.

 

But, I guess not every pitcher can claim to have formerly pitched for the Rangers or Indians.

[jud6312]

 

Even if he's replacing Duffey, why replace bad with bad?

Because Duffey's never played for the Rangers?

[darin617]

There's one flaw if you look real close in the video. He was facing the Twins.

[joeshmoe]

Who thought I’d be wishing for the days of bill smith and terry ryan.

[Winston Smith]

He was cheap...

[jorgenswest]

I don’t see how this helps but this is Falvey’s team and Falvey’s staff.

 

They need to be buyers at the deadline this season or they need to clean out the leadership. I would have added to the top of the rotation and pushed everybody back a slot. I would have looked to the lack of starting pitching in 2020 and found a mid rotation or better starter with 2020 control.

[DocBauer]

Is "meh" a "meh" enough response?

 

Or should I slap my forehead, kick the dirt and say !@#$?

[SF Twins Fan]

I didn't like this signing right off the bat and I like it even less now that we know the contract amount.....Yuck.

 

 

 

Edit: I wonder who the Twins release now?

[The Mask of Zoilo]

Best guess: they're looking for a lefty opener to use in front of a righty primary. They used Moya in that role 6 times last year. Perez is used to starting. Maybe Perez first time through the order numbers look good?

[TheMatt]

Awesome. He too can be filed under "Rather still have Curtiss"

[ChrisKnutson]

Could’ve really used Allen, but since we’re being cheap, I guess all that’s left for us to do is to sign one more mediocre middle reliever and we’re set, there’s no way we can mess this up, right??

[jorgenswest]

Looking at Perez data over his career...

 

His best and only positive pitch last year was his sinker. The change up had been a positive pitch in the past. It is hard to imagine decreasing the use f his most effective pitch will be helpful.

 

He has been equally ineffective over his career regardless of time through the line up or pitch count. To me this suggests that he will not be helped by pairing with an opener or stacked with another starter.

 

Over his career he has been much more effective against left handed batters. Maybe they see him as a second left handed arm in the bullpen. I hope the bullpen is the Twins plan for Perez.

[tvagle]

This must be a precursor to the following moves:

 

Graterol/Romero/Polanco/Kepler/Mejia/Garver for Realmuto

 

Machado signed 9 yrs/$270M Opt out after 3 years (35/35/35/30/30/30/25/25/25)

 

or...

 

The Wonder Twins think tanking this year will get them Adley Rutschman of Bobby Witt, Jr.

 

or...

 

These two know something the entire baseball world doesn't and they will prove it by trading Perez just before training camp for a 120lb Dominican pitcher that projects to be the second coming of Martinez on the bump (Ramon not Pedro)

 

or...

 

this was meant to calm all the twitter moaning about not spending money

 

I blame Warne and Beradino for revealing the Twins have $300k on the books for the next decade while the rest of the league averages $100M+

 

Why on earth is this a Major League deal??? I can't believe other teams were plotting to nab Martin anytime before spring training....been to every opening week(end) at Target Field and I have no urge to purchase tickets this year...thoroughly dis-heartened, dis-interested, dis-satisfied, dis-gruntled, dis-enchanted, dis-combobulated

 

As a fan i guess you could say I feel just plain Dissed