The Boston Red Sox signed starting pitcher Martin Perez of Guanare, Venezuela to a one year contract worth $6.5 million on Thursday. At first and every glance, it is rather surprising that the Red Sox decided to dish out so much money to a pitcher who has pitched poorly the last two seasons.
In 2019, Perez did win 10 games, but had a poor earned run average of 5.12 and an equally poor WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched) of 1.52. In 32 games and 165 1/3 innings pitched, Perez gave up 184 hits, 94 earned runs, 23 home runs, 67 walks with 135 strikeouts. One could argue that Perez’s struggles last season were overshadowed a little bit due to the fact that the Minnesota Twins comfortably won the American League Central. With Perez having such a high ERA and WHIP, you would have thought the Red Sox would have looked elsewhere for starting pitching when money in Boston is never a concern, but they decided to go with Perez instead.
Perez’s 2018 season with the Texas Rangers was even worse than the 2019 season in Minnesota. That year he won two games and lost seven, had a horrible earned run average of 6.22 and an awful WHIP of 1.78. In 15 starts (85 1/3 innings pitched), he gave up 116 hits, 59 earned runs, 16 home runs, 36 walks with 52 strikeouts.
Fenway Park in Boston is a hitter’s park. Hits come frequently. As the Red Sox looked to replace Rick Porcello (who signed with the New York Mets in the offseason), fans of Red Sox Nation will hope Boston’s management team has not finished yet in looking for starting pitching for the 2020 regular season.
