Right-hander Luis Perdomo has cleared release waivers and is now a free agent, the Padres announced this afternoon. He was designated for assignment when the team set its roster in advance of the upcoming Rule 5 Draft.
Perdomo, 27, is a former Rule 5 pickup himself. The Padres gave him 146 2/3 frames of work that Rule 5 season even as he was clobbered for a 5.71 ERA, as the team didn’t want to let go of a power sinker with such strong ground-ball tendencies. Things took a turn for the better in 2017 when Perdomo pitched a career-high 163 2/3 innings with a 4.67 ERA, a 4.40 FIP and a whopping 61.9 percent grounder rate out of the San Diego rotation. The Padres moved Perdomo to the bullpen in 2019 and saw him turn in 72 frames of 4.00 ERA/3.60 FIP ball with a diminished but still-strong 52.5 percent ground-ball rate.
Unfortunately for the organization and for Perdomo himself, he wasn’t able to sustain that output in 2020. The righty went down with a forearm injury in September after 17 1/3 ugly innings, and a month later the Padres announced that Perdomo had undergone Tommy John surgery. He’ll miss the entire 2021 season as a result. It’s possible that the Padres bring Perdomo back on a minor league pact with an eye toward getting some value out of him in 2022, but he’ll have the opportunity to see if other clubs have similar interest.
Perdomo’s career 5.19 ERA isn’t much to look at, but he has a 4.44 FIP, 4.20 xFIP and a 57.3 percent ground-ball rate in 444 1/3 innings as Major Leaguer.
Perdomo is still young. I’m confident there is a pitching coach who can work with his talent.
He was given every opportunity to succeed, and he failed. Sometimes you’ve just got to admit he doesn’t have what it takes.
I wouldn’t mind the Cardinals picking him back up to see what he’s got left in 2022. His profile fits well with what they try to get out of their pitchers
Perdomo always seemed like a pretty reliable performer. Never spectacular, but rarely did he get shelled. Good middle reliever type of guy who can eat innings. He will find a home somewhere.
You obviously never watched him start and might have seen the blue moon performance of his good days in relief vs the even more bad days in the pen
Yeah that’s about the opposite from what I saw. Whenever Perdomo pitched, he was either dominating the other team, or getting destroyed. There was no in between. He has good stuff though, and I think he could develop into a good reliever with better coaching.
He had so few dominate games as a starter and a stretch of like 10 games in the pen where he was good. The rest was garbage and in reality should have never been in the majors nor should any team sign him
You didn’t see many of his games, did you? He was consistently terrible, except for a few games out of the bullpen, and maybe two or three starts. In other words, he’s about what you would expect from any random minor leaguer with “good stuff.” Except – he never got better.
Any team should be interested on a minors deal. The Angels would offer a pretty clear path back to MLB in 2022 if he signs here. And we should have plenty of practice dealing with TJS rehab by now.
I can see him as a cheap project for us with little risk. And if he lives in the Diego, he won’t have to move.
Philip Rivers, the Chargers Quarterback, still lives in SD. But football is only once a week, and he outfitted his SUV to have a video room in the back. Someone else drives.
But baseball is nearly everyday, and I think that commuting between Anaheim and San Diego is way too much of a pain for Perdomo.
Rivers doesn’t live in San Diego
Right, because he plays for Indianapolis now. But when he was a Los Angeles Charger, he still lived in San Diego. I wonder if he now has his SD home and a sweet apartment in Indianapolis. Probably.
@Halos … how did that Garrett Richards TJ rehab go?
Oh wait … Preller screwed that up for you.
He seemed to do much better as a reliever than a starter. I’m sure plenty of teams would have interest in him as a reliever.
A near 60% ground-ball rate will get him more than a few calls by MLB teams once he’s recovered. Maybe a change of scenery and a change in how he’s used will bring better results.
The modern baseball card must be about an inch wide and a foot long. When you flip it over, it’s got every sabermetric statistic available across the back of it.
No loss, he was never very good.
Someone might have him pitch out of the bullpen where I think he could pitch well.
Yea, depending on the cost and roster commitment necessary, I’d like the Mets to look into him. He was effective out of the pen in ‘19, although horrific this past season.
He wasn’t as effective as you think. Look at the game logs.
Dawg – you are the only person on here who doesn’t think he has some potential in that arm. Consider that maybe he does.
Everybody has ‘some’ potential. Few actually realize it. Apparently, the Padres have seen enough.