According to a report from Robert Murray of FanSided, the Pittsburgh Pirates and left-handed pitcher Martín Pérez have agreed on a contract, subject to a physical. The deal’s specifics have not been disclosed to the public. But according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Jason Mackey, the deal will only last a year and cost $8 million.
Pérez, who turns 33 in April, had a tremendous season in 2022 but was not able to sustain that kind of play in the subsequent campaign. He pitched for the Texas Rangers for 32 starts in the prior season, covering 196 1/3 innings with a 2.89 earned run average. His ground ball rate of 51.4% was remarkable, his walk rate of 8.4% was strong, and his strikeout rate of 20.6% was marginally below average. He also showed that he could evade barrels and reduce harsh contact.
His low fly ball-to-home run rate of 6.5% and high strand rate of 77% in 2022 might have contributed to his outstanding performance. Consequently, he had a rather less spectacular Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) of 3.27 and a Skill Interactive Earned Run Average (SIERA) of 4.08. Despite this, Pérez had a fantastic season, recording career-high wins above replacement (WAR) ratings of 5.0 per Baseball Reference and 4.0 per FanGraphs. Rangers qualified offer of $19.65 million, which Pérez accepted, showing enough faith in his performance.
Regretfully, Pérez’s 2023 season took a turn for the worse, and as a result, he was sent to the bullpen in August following the Rangers’ trade deadline acquisitions of Jordan Montgomery and Max Scherzer. Pérez’s strikeout percentage dropped to 14.4% and his ground ball rate to 41% at that point, giving him an ERA of 4.98. While he did pitch out of the bullpen rather successfully in the latter two months of the season, bringing his ERA down to 4.45, it was obviously not the season the Rangers had hoped for at that price.
Less than half of Pérez’s salary from the previous season will be paid to him by the Pirates, who probably won’t expect him to repeat his outstanding 2022 campaign. Pérez, despite being a good back-end player, will still be an improvement for their rotation. He pitched 1,102 2/3 innings with a 4.71 ERA between 2012 and 2021. Despite not having many strikeouts, he only took walks that were about league average, and over half of the balls that were put in play resulted in ground balls.
The Pittsburgh starting rotation had an ERA of 4.88 in 2023, which suggested instability. Although Johan Oviedo and Mitch Keller each had 32 starts, Oviedo’s Tommy John surgery will prevent him from playing in 2024. Before being dealt to the San Diego Padres at the deadline, Rich Hill made 22 starts for the team. He is currently a free agent. Twelve more pitchers started games for the Pirates at least once in the season.
Marco Gonzales was later acquired by the team from the Atlanta Braves, who had obtained him as part of the Jarred Kelenic trade from the Seattle Mariners. As was the case with Hill this year and José Quintana the year before, the Pirates have added two seasoned left-handed pitchers with finesse in Gonzales and Pérez, who should help stabilize the rotation and maybe be traded assets before the trade deadline. Keller and those three pitchers will probably guarantee three positions in the rotation between them, with less experienced players like Bailey Falter, Luis Ortiz, Roansy Contreras, Quinn Priester, Jackson Wolf, or Kyle Nicolas able to fill the other roles. Furthermore, Paul Skenes, the first overall pick this year, might not be far behind.
Roster Resource reports that the Pirates’ payroll for the next season has increased to $66 million as a result of this agreement. Ben Cherington, the general manager, has already expressed his belief that the team’s payroll for the upcoming season may surpass the $73 million amount from Opening Day 2023.