While Minaya’s decision not to overspend on Derek Lowe is looking good, his signing of Oliver Perez is looking catastrophic.
Perez is having a nightmare season, with an ERA an eyelash under 10, and more walks than strikeouts in only 21.2 innings pitched. After being sent to the minors to work on his control, Perez injured his knee and has been on the road to recovery ever since.
He recently had an encouraging outing in the minors, pitching five shutout innings, striking out seven and walking none. He should be on his way back to the majors soon, although his role is still undefined.
For the record, I was in favor of giving Perez a 3-year contract worth $30 million. I don’t understand why Minaya seemingly bid against himself and added $6 million to the deal (it seemed as if no other team was going to touch Perez).
But the fact remains, I would rather sign the 27 year old Perez for 3 years than the 36 year old Lowe for 4. Obviously, I did not anticipate that the season would start so disastrously for Ollie.
Still, in an effort to save face and give Mets fans some hope, I remain confident that Perez will return and provide exactly what everyone expects: the unexpected. One day he’ll go seven strong and the next he’ll last only three innings.
But as aggravating as this is to watch on a day-to-day basis, the end result is a pitcher who is still better than the average bear.
Over the last two years, Perez was 25-17 with a 3.91 ERA, 354 K and 184 BB in 371 IP. I’d take those numbers over a guy like Randy Wolf (who hasn’t had an ERA under 4 since 2002) or Jon Garland (who has had an ERA under 4 only once in his career).
I doubt he will ever be able to put it all together and take his game to the next level, but I do think that he will be almost worth his contract over the next couple of years. And in today’s economy, isn’t it enough to get almost what you paid for?
Pete Lappin (3)
