The Red Sox have released catcher Roberto Perez, as noted by Chris Hatfield of SoxProspects.com. Perez signed a minor league deal with the club back in December but has spent the entire regular season on the injured list in the minors.
A veteran of ten big league seasons, Perez is a two-time Gold Glove award winner who has routinely been considered one of the best defensive catchers in the sport throughout his career. Unfortunately, the 35-year-old has struggled badly with injury woes in recent years after being a regular presence in the Cleveland lineup during the 2019 and 2020 seasons. The veteran was limited to just 44 games in 2021 by a fractured finger and a shoulder strain, a reality that allowed Austin Hedges to jump the veteran on Cleveland’s depth chart.
Perez became a free agent for the first time after the 2021 season, but his injury woes have only gotten worse since then. He found a big league deal with the Pirates headed into 2022 but ultimately appeared in just 21 games before hamstring problems ended his season in early May. The following winter Perez latched on with the Giants on a non-roster pact and earned a spot on the club’s staff with a strong Spring Training. Unfortunately, the veteran made it just five games into the regular season before undergoing season-ending surgery to repair the rotator cuff in his right shoulder. Between those injuries and now the undisclosed issue that has plagued Perez this year, the 35-year-old has stepped up to the plate in official games just 86 times since the end of the 2021 season.
For a veteran catcher in his mid-thirties, the lengthy string of injuries is a concerning one, although it’s worth noting that his limited regular season and spring training appearances have generally shown him to still be a solid defensive catcher when healthy. On the other hand, he’s been nothing short of atrocious at the plate following a roughly league average 2019 season, slashing just .169/.268/.288 with a wRC+ of 58 in 357 plate appearances at the big league level since then.
Even so, it would hardly be a shock for a catching-needy club to take a look at Perez on a minor league deal if he can get healthy enough to contribute in the second half, given the importance of catching depth and the veteran’s sterling defensive reputation. As for Boston, the club remains deep in catching depth behind their primary tandem of Connor Wong and Reese McGuire even after parting ways with Perez; Tyler Heineman is on the 40-man roster as an optionable depth piece, while Mark Kolozsvary provides additional, non-roster depth with big league experience at the Triple-A level.
Bring him back Guardians.
No.
Go back to Cleveland surely you can have better defense than hedges and naylor and passable enough offense and definitely not get injured
If I were him either Cleveland or retire
Nice defender, but probably a month away from contributing in the majors.
I didn’t know Russell Martin’s doppelganger still played.
Also looks like Alex Verdugo’s angry older brother…
stick a fork in him
Lets stick a fork in you while we;re at it.
Perez had no path to playing time in Boston anyway. Seems like the end of the line is near but wouldn’t be surprised to see him in someone’s training camp next spring
Can you imagine being assigned to write about this dude on July 4th? There should be a bonus involved. Thank you for your service.
He did a good Deed.
What a waste of talent. Not Perez. Not the author. I’m talking these 2 comments. Incredible stuff and no one here to see it.
You gotta google the word “incredible”
Weren’t the Red Sox like 14 games behind the Yankees three weeks ago? Huh.
That was 3 weeks ago, now it’s just 5.5 back….Yankees 2-8 last 10 Red Sox are 7-3…..Yanks lost 3 in a row at the same time Boston won 4….lead shrank quick
hayzee – Glad you are acknowledging how much strength of schedule impacts the standings. I wish the Red Sox could play the Marlins and Jays every day.
Funny thing, the Yankees and Orioles are just 8-8 against the Jays, while the Red Sox (thus far) are 4-1 against them. Strength of schedule washes out in the end, as they all play a similar schedule.
As calculated by B-R (based on run differential), the Yankees strength of schedule to date is +0.1 while the Red Sox is +0.0. But that flips, as the Yankees have one of the easiest schedules in the majors going forward.
Key is playing your game, winning the ones ahead of you. Strength of schedule explains some of the ups and downs in a season, but it isn’t going to make or break a playoff quality team. Much bigger differences in team quality than in strength of schedule.
tff – There’s so many factors, that’s why many of these statistical projections are almost always wrong.
For instance last year the Twins had the definite advantage of playing in the worst division in MLB … which not only meant double the number of games against two 101-106 loss teams (ChiSox and Royals) than two 99-101 win teams (Orioles and Rays), it also meant an easy division title. So not really similar schedules at all. The Twins were the only team in the division to not have a losing record.
Another factor is WHEN you play certain teams. Are the April-May Astros the same team as the June/July Astros? Of course not. Are the Dodgers with Mookie and Yamamoto the same team as the Dodgers without them? Of course not.
That’s why in the end, postseason-caliber teams typically play at least .500 against winning teams. Every current division leader has at least a .500 record.
I mean how many years do we have to see the EXACT same thing?
Last July the Sox were 9 games over .500 and we all know how that season ended.
In 2022 they were 10 games over .500 and we all know how that season ended.
Not a coincidence they faded each year when the schedule got tougher.
Ya don’t think that injuries to Duran and Casas among others, and a pitching collapse due to a lack of depth had anything to do with it?
The schedule averages out for the most part. You could have reversed the Twins’ schedule and the Red Sox’ schedule last year and the Twins still would have won the division, the Red Sox still would have fallen short.
Remains to be seen whether they have enough pitching to make it through August. The starting pitching looked good in the last series, but that was against a weak team. If they can maintain their form against the Yankees then I will be more impressed.
You have to think in terms of the quality of the 40-man roster, not just the starters, because by the end of the season pretty much everybody will be needed in some role or another. The Red Sox have better pitching depth this year than they did in 2022-2023. Maybe not enough, but better.
For what it’s worth, both of the World Series teams last year were below .500 against winning teams., just as the Phillies were in 2022. I totally agree that you need to play consistently strong baseball to win your division — not even remotely on the table for the Red Sox this year — but it is entirely possible to make the playoffs as a Wild Card and still play well in October.
Key is to win more games than your competition. If you are better at stomping the weak teams than they are, you have a distinct advantage in making the playoffs.
tff – I know I’m one of the very few here who followed the team all of last year (yes I’m a glutton for punishment LOL).
No matter the record, no matter if they’ve already been mathematically eliminated, nobody is more loyal to the Red Sox players than I. So as with most things Red Sox, I can immediately say Casas missed only the last two weeks of the season which was long AFTER they had already been eliminated. His injury was a total non-factor in their collapse last year.
As for Duran, you’re thinking of this year’s version which he was definitely NOT when he batted just .229 with just a .681 OPS from July 15th to August 20 when the injury ended his season. I know you hate Abreu, but he batted .316 with an .862 OPS in Duran’s absence so if anything the Duran injury actually HELPED the Red Sox.
But ya know what? Injuries shouldn’t even be brought up, because EVERY team has them. You can’t point to the Red Sox and say they’d have done better without injuries, because opponents would have done better if THEY didn’t have any injuries. You don’t think the greatest hitter in the game missing essentially all of June and July was a big loss?
I totally agree with you, I will be impressed if the Sox pitching performs well this month and beyond with such a tougher schedule. Remember when everyone wanted Bello to be demoted after his last start, I stuck up for him and demanded he get the start in Miami. It worked out just as I had expected, he pitched well and his confidence improved. Breslow thinks like me, that’s why he gave Bello the extra rest because facing the Athletics next week will be much more beneficial to Bello’s development than facing the Yankees and possibly getting pounded in front of a hostile crowd.
I’m just grateful the Marlins made the idiotic decision to send the runner home on a medium fly ball with just one out, you never send the runner in that situation unless they have the speed of a Duran or Hamilton. The Marlins would have won the game if they hadn’t tried to score then.
Looking forward to tonight, I really think Houck will redeem himself. The downward trend ends tonight!!
Looking forward to tonight’s game, it won’t be a cakewalk like the Marlins.
In the end it all comes down to pitching. Teams that have enough life in their arms to make it through July and August end up doing well, while others fade in the summer heat. Remember the 2006 second half collapse? They were up by three at the ASB then posted a 5.81 ERA in August to fall completely out of the race. Not just the competition, either, they got swept by both the Yankees AND on their West Coast trip.
Same bug that bit them last year, with a 5.33 ERA in August. Bello was the only guy on the staff who was regularly completing five, and there is no way that a bullpen can stand up under that load.
Now it has a hold on the Yankees starters. They will eventually pull out of the tailspin, but until they do so the teams they are playing need to just keep piling on.
unfortunately that’s back to back atrocious starts for Houck. If anyone seems to need a break now it’s him.
Houck has topped his career high in innings, and the season is only half way through.
Any explanation why they can’t win on Fridays?
sarcasm?
Ha ha ha! Wasn’t trying for the reverse jinx, but maybe it worked that way? Great finish, props to Masa and Rafaela!
well it worked. I’ll take it
tff – I wouldn’t worry about Houck. One of the reasons why he and Duran are two of my favorites and I have supported them since they first made the majors is they are old school tough. Duran doesn’t need to be babied with days off and Houck doesn’t need to have a strict innings limit.
I know you’re probably thinking he’s tiring, I don’t believe that for a minute. Tonight it was the rain delay that did him in, he was great before it.
tff – It is strange, no question about it. But not tonight!
What a great win, many of the players are showing they have what’s most important to winning …. coming through in the clutch – hitting, pitching and defense. Clutch is what counts the most.
And for me personally it’s so rewarding to see players who almost everyone here was down on coming through bigtime.
Devers and Yoshida took so much crap all offseason and even through May, but look at them now. Devers is having a career year and is near the top in several offensive categories and his DEFENSE is much improved. Did you see the diving catch he made that was reminiscent of the Jeter dive? If the net wasn’t there he would have gone into the crowd.
And Yoshida with a MASSIVE 2-out 2-strike game-tying homerun in the 9th ….. wow! I know the Yankees have been the worst team in baseball the past few weeks, but this was still a very enjoyable win.
And also lots of credit to CLUTCH Jansen, getting Judge to pop up with the tie run on the bases and then striking out one of the hardest men in baseball to strike out. Jansen is another guy the Sox will need to think twice about trading at the deadline. Martin will not be able to step in for him and Liam is still a huge question mark.
tff – I’m still torn on Rafaela. It’s great that he’s so CLUTCH with 10 homeruns and 49 RBI (compared to the un-clutch O’Neill who has only 30 RBI despite hitting cleanup, 3rd or 5th most of the season) but I would like to see Rafaela shorten his swing and drive the ball more often.
Speaking of O’Neill, he’s been selfishly pushing to participate in the HR Derby. If I were the Red Sox it would be a hard no. This is a guy who claimed to have knee issues all season, so why would he enter a competition that could require him to take more than 100 max effort swings? He doesn’t need the million dollar prize, he’s already making plenty of money. Think about the team for once O’Neill, you don’t see Devers pushing to be in the derby.
Fever – What did you think of Alfonso Soriano? The more I watch Rafaela the more he reminds me of him. Great speed, powerful arm, extremely athletic and a guy who could produce big runs while striking out a lot. He finished 3rd in the ROY in 2001. Then the next year he finished 3rd in the MVP voting with 38 HRs and 35 SBs. Of course the Yankees didn’t bat him in the 9th hole like the numbskull running the Red Sox so his numbers clearly could ratchet up when Cora gets fired.
He’s a better defensive shortstop than Mayer and a better defensive CF than Duran. There is only one other guy I know that has that type of athleticism…. The PRODIGY of BOSTON playing for LAD thanks to the moron owners.
Would you have wanted Soriano to become a conservative hitter like you are suggesting for Rafaela? That makes no sense to me. I say bat him at the top of the order with Duran and make the first inning and the last inning more productive like when Mookie was coupled with Benny and JD. The DH, Devers, should make out like a bandit with those two in front of him while he steals $30MM a year botching balls at 3B for the next decade.
As far as O’Neill goes. I say let him because he’s going to get hurt. It’s just a matter of time. This team needs to accept that the future is Duran, Rafaela and Abreu or Anthony in the outfield so O’Neill needs to DH when Rafaela isn’t playing SS. As far as this messing with his swing? I truly don’t believe it will happen because his tendency for injuries will do him in during the second half. Muscle bound players seldom avoid the IL No better example than Stanton.
If Boston’s one shining moment in the all-star game comes from O’Neill doing well, that’s great because it feeds his ego and focuses him on hitting more HRs in the second half while he is healthy!!
I always worry when pitchers go more than ~30 innings beyond what they did the prior year, but I agree that he looks strong so far. And yes, rain delays are a killer.
You saw the kerfluffle over Duran’s shirt on the NESN broadcast, following the walk-off. Loved his response to that one.
Rafaela is coming along nicely as well, was it you who had a feeling this would be his night?
Agree on so much of that. Devers takes a lot of grief for his defense (with some justification), but he is a rock in the lineup. And it is great to see Yoshida get going, credit to Cora who has a LOT more patience than I do. That was a good AB and a great HR. And Jansen?!? Yeah, he doesn’t get a lot of attention, but he is nails! You do *not* trade Jansen unless you are giving up on the season.
Rafaela is a very immature player still, both offensively and defensively, but if you think back to April you’ll see that he is already making big strides. Can’t know where he will end up in a year or two, but we are already seeing glimmer of stardom. I’m just enjoying the ride. 🙂 🙂 🙂
O’Neill won’t even be in the ASG, how could he be in the HR Derby? Am I missing something?
tff – That’s a great point and I absolutely agree with you, any team that makes the postseason can go to the World Series. If the Red Sox do win a WC there is no doubt in my mind they could go to the WS. It’s all about health, getting hot at the right time, and coming up big in clutch situations. We saw that with the Sox in 2021, they grabbed a WC on the last day of the regular season and with clutch pitching by the Great Nate and Houck and clutch hitting by Kike they made it to the ALCS.
What I find more interesting about this year’s team is how well they play on the road, they have the 2nd-best road record in MLB!
Rafaela actually leads the team in PA with RISP. Think there are some teams that pitch around the guys ahead of him, then end up paying the price?
Look at the stats for BA with RISP, there are many guys chipping in. Most of the key players aside from O’Neill and Devers.
tff – That’s a great observation about 2006, I don’t remember much about that year. They had let Damon and Pedro walk, and made the horrific trade of Arroyo so 2006 was a bad year until the new crop of young talent became established (Pap, Lester, Pedroia, Ellsbury).
As for the Yankees, yes I agree their starting pitchers will likely improve (Cortes was great last night) but I think their bigger concern is they have a very unbalanced lineup especially with Stanton out. Only Judge and Soto have an OPS higher than .693 can you believe it? DJL seriously needs to be released ASAP, he has totally lost it.
Just think, the Sox were 14 games back of the Yankees last month. Can you imagine if they catch them?
It would be the exact opposite of what happened in 1978 when the Sox had a 14-game lead on the Yankees in July. Maybe this year they finally turn the tables?
TF – Excellent post as always! Sure the NESN announcers can be homers at times, as every broadcast team is, but I give them credit for being honest most of the time. Even last night they all repeatedly said “the Yankees kept trying to hand the game to the Red Sox, and in the end they finally did”. This season more and more seems like it’s not a matter of winning the most games, it’s all about giving away the fewest amount of games. There’s so few really solid teams this year, don’t you think? In the AL it’s Cleveland and Baltimore, with Houston getting there as their players recover from injury.
Valdez is brutal, the NESN announcers bashed Cora for starting him at 2B. And BTW I saw some idiotic website insist that Wong should be the starting 2B when Teel arrives …. how dumb is that?
I thought you had changed your opinion of Yoshida and Devers and were fans of them now? LOL
All-Stars were based on fan voting, which means teams that have strong attendance and engaged fanbases got the bulk of the starters in. But I assure you Duran, Devers and Houck will get in and Wong has a better than 50% chance.
I haven’t changed my stance at all, I’ve said since ST the team has a chance to make the postseason but I will wait until after the trade deadline before deciding whether to buy in.
TF – Bottom line is Rafaela getting on base at a .330 clip would be FAR more valuable than him swinging for the fences to get 19 homers.
We’ve seen how much Duran and Hamilton impact the game when they are running the bases, can you imagine if Rafaela got on base more too? His .275 OBP is simply unacceptable for an athlete with his speed, in fact it’s the WORST OBP on the entire team!!!
tff – No, I missed that! What happened with Duran’s shirt?
I can’t take credit for Rafaela’s homerun, it was only Houck that I said would come up big last night.
tff – Players don’t need to be on the All-Star Game roster to be in the homerun derby. Yoenis Céspedes, Stanton, and Alonso all won the Homerun Derby without being named to the All-Star team. I can’t remember when it began.
Yes absolutely Rafaela has improved, let’s hope it continues. I know Devers has taken him under his wing, which is a very good thing.
With Jansen it’s a matter of health, let’s hope he stays healthy.
Devers has improved defensively quite a bit, it’s reflected in both the analytics and by watching him.
Cora doesn’t need patience to play Yoshida, what other option does he have? He is a career .282 hitter with a .763 OPS and he’s hitting .364 with a .932 OPS since June 24th! Do you realize he’d be the 3rd-best hitter on the Yankees right now? LOL
And BTW Ref is hitless since June 24th, I think everyone expected him to regress closer to his career numbers.
tff – I hafta admit, I was really surprised when the Marlins made the decision to intentionally walk Rafaela to get to Duran. I understand Duran struggles against LHP, but still …..
It worked out for the Marlins though, so I was wrong on that one.
You surprised me with that one. Obviously I knew they were down, but it surprised me that it was as high as 14. Big game tonight. I won’t mind losing 2-3, but definitely don’t want to get swept.
Check out the Yankees starting pitching since the last series against the Red Sox. Cortes has been strong, Cole is okay, but the rest of the rotation is in freefall right now. The team ERA since June 14 (the start of the Red Sox series) is 6.36, worst in the majors. The starting pitching ERA is 7.41, *also* easily the worst in the majors.
Can you imagine the meltdowns you would see on these boards if the Red Sox rotation ran a 7+ ERA over a three week stretch?
My pet theory is that MLB brought back the rabbit balls that they slipped in during the 2022 campaign to help Judge set his HR mark. Of course MLB denies it, but nobody trusts them at this point. The Yankees starters are giving up home runs at a truly impressive rate, 21 home runs over 85 innings in 18 games.
sports.yahoo.com/mlb-reportedly-used-three-basebal…
Or maybe the Yankees SP are just worn out?
I honestly never understood this signing, anyways. He was not needed for depth.
Can’t remember exactly where I read it but it seems he was brought in as a coach for Teel and others in the organization also.
That was my guess as well. And he kind of has that leadership as well.
Yes, Perez is a highly respected veteran. They signed him on a minor league deal, with the $1.4M only kicking in if he was added to the ML roster. Not sure what they ended up paying him, but it was surely worth it to have his experience in camp for the younger guys.
DBH – Heineken is not better than Perez, career-wise or over the the past couple seasons. If Perez had stayed healthy, he’d be 3rd on the depth chart.
He’s too old for the farm system and he’s more fragile than porcelain