{"id":893,"date":"2011-03-24T13:32:56","date_gmt":"2011-03-24T17:32:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=893"},"modified":"2011-03-24T13:32:56","modified_gmt":"2011-03-24T17:32:56","slug":"quick-thoughts-on-the-oliver-perez-acquisition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=893","title":{"rendered":"Quick Thoughts on the Oliver Perez acquisition"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Perez's down and out of NY; can he come back with the Nats? Photo: metzilla.com\/baseballlatinamerica.com<\/p><\/div>\n

Word came down on March 21st that the New York Mets had finally given up on Oliver Perez<\/strong> turning his career around and flat out released him<\/a>.\u00a0 He had a great 2007 season<\/a>, going 15-10 in a full season starting for a nifty 121 era+.\u00a0 Despite coming back down to earth in 2008, the Mets signed him to a 3yr\/$36M contract for 2009-11.\u00a0 He got hurt in 2009, was grossly ineffective in 2010, and now the Mets have decided to eat his entire $12m salary just to be rid of him in 2011.\u00a0 He was reportedly only throwing in the mid 80s and the Mets were looking at him as a Loogy, not a starter or even a long reliever.<\/p>\n

Two days later, Nats fans hear that he’s signed a minor league deal<\/a> with Washington.\u00a0 Beat reporters Goessling<\/a> and Zuckerman<\/a> nicely summed up similar thoughts to me with respect to this move and what it may mean for the AAA rotation.\u00a0 But here’s some questions and answers about the move.<\/p>\n

Q: Why didn’t the Mets try to trade him?<\/strong> The answer is probably along the lines of, who would want to assume $12M of salary?\u00a0 Perhaps if the deal was Perez plus $11M for a prospect.\u00a0 But Perez has looked so bad, his velocity so far below where it used to be, that the Mets probably figured no team would trade anything of value for him.<\/p>\n

Q: Why didn’t the Mets just assign him to AAA to keep him?<\/strong> Perez has enough MLB service that he could refuse the assignment and become a free agent, essentially putting him in the exact same spot he is now by virtue of his unconditional release.<\/p>\n

Q: Why would the Nats possibly want him?<\/strong> This is a very low risk, low cost move.\u00a0 Even if he makes the majors we’re not paying anything more than the MLB minimum salary for him (somewhere in the $450k range).\u00a0 He has already agreed to go to AAA, where he could NOT go for New York.\u00a0 He can go to AAA, work on his mechanics in a low-stress, low-visibility environment and try to regain what once made him a great prospect.<\/p>\n

Q: Is the displacement of other AAA pitchers worth the risk<\/strong>?\u00a0 Assuming that Perez is treated like a starter, we’re probably now looking at this for the AAA rotation:<\/p>\n