Mets to Give Perez Yet Another Chance
I’ve refrained from my dislike of Oliver Perez for quite some time. I had hoped that, at the end of the 2008 season, the Mets and Perez would part ways and his pitiful performances would be put in the past and the Mets could move on. That, however, never happened. Instead, the Mets resigned Perez to the sum of $36 million over three years.
Perez has never shown that he is worth $12 million per year. He’s been awful this year, as he has been the last three years, yet the Mets think he deserves another shot. This is after they said that the 2-3-4-5 starting pitchers needed to prove themselves worthy of keeping their starting positions this past week. The only reason that can be used for keeping him one more start is that Perez has pitched well against the Phillies in his career.
The most boggling thing about this is that the Mets are surprised by Perez’ performance so far this year. Perez is doing what he’s been doing his whole career. He is a mediocre pitcher, at best, a disaster, at worst.
Oliver Perez gave up 4+ earned runs in 12 of his last 34 starts in 2008. Perez is far too inconsistent to have been rewarded with a multi-year contract. He lacks the basic fundamentals to put together more than one quality start in a row.
The erratic outings of Perez will only hurt the Mets’ bullpen down the stretch. They will be worn out from trying to save and cover his mistakes all season long.
The Mets made the mistake of keeping Perez, John Maine, and Mike Pelfrey and they are going to pay for it over the course of the season. Hopefully, the latter two can get their acts together, but Perez is on such thin ice that he just needs to go somewhere, anywhere else except for the pitching mound.
What it comes down to is that, as a pitcher, you are paid to give your team a good chance at winning the game. The Mets’ 2-3-4-5 pitchers haven’t been doing that. Perez is singled out partly because of his enormous salary to talent ratio and partly because of his inability to be consistent.
