Martin Perez Now a Cut Above

During the offseason the Minnesota Twins signed Martin Perez to a one-year deal worth $4 million. They were able to add a team option for 2020, and the former Rangers top prospect appeared to be someone the front office intentionally targeted. Coming off a season with a 6.22 ERA and pedestrian supporting numbers, the fit looked like an odd one. Given Thad Levine’s familiarity with Perez and Derek Falvey’s pitching prowess, the outlier was a belief from the top. It certainly appears like that was well founded.

Coming into 2019 Perez had a five-pitch mix featuring a fastball, sinker, changeup, slider, and a curveball. He flipped those offerings with velocities ranging from 78 mph all the way up to 93 mph. As a starter, things weren’t all that impressive in 2018, but late work out of the pen seemed to capture reason for future belief.

The Twins overhauled their coaching infrastructure this offseason and made a concerted effort to change how they both evaluated and implemented new ideas. Wes Johnson was brought in as the big-league pitching coach and has long been regarded as a velocity guru and someone well regarded at the top of the college ranks. A further implementation of Edgertronic cameras allowed more information to be captured during Spring Training, and guys like Josh Kalk and Jeremy Hefner were then able to turn it into actionable data. This process no doubt helped to influence one significant change for Perez.

Having flirted with the idea previously, and in talking with his agent. Martin gave in and decided now was the time to introduce a cutter to his repertoire. Having never thrown the pitch in big league action previously, he is now using it one-third of the time in 2019. Scrapping the slider altogether, and halving the sinker usage, he’s prioritized his new weapon. Pushing his fastball velocity up two ticks to 95 mph, the cutter averages just under 90 mph and creates a nice pairing. Introducing something new like this, and being all in immediately, is indicative of trust and buy in for a coaching staff committed to your success.

On top of turning to a new offering, Perez is certainly feeling confident with the pitch. Looking at the count profile, he’s turning to the cutter early and often. Whether behind or ahead in the count, his cutter is being paired and tunneled with other offerings to consistently keep it present in the mind of hitters.

It’s one thing to be excited about something new, but Perez also has reason to celebrate the results. Not only is his velocity a career high, but he’s generating a 10.6% whiff rate which is nearly 3% above his career average. He’s getting batters to chase more often, and he’s allowing contact less than at any previously point in his career. We’re only 34 innings into his Twins tenure but calling the work thus far anything but extraordinary would be selling it short.

Athletes are not robots and feeling positive momentum about such a significant development is evident of normal human emotion. Seeing Perez express gratitude following his outing against the Astros was hard not to read and immediately picture the smile beaming off his face. For a guy who has previously been highly regarded, never has seen it all come together, and now has reinvented himself to reach new heights, feeling on top of the world should be more than warranted.

There’s no telling how this story ends, or how the 2019 season progresses for Minnesota’s offseason acquisition. Right now, though, the narrative is Martin Perez has found a cutter that has him looking like an asset with unrealized and untapped potential. For the Minnesota Twins, it’s nice to see a redefined infrastructure and process bear fruit in such a welcomed form.

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