The Red Sox Have Re-Signed The King Martin Perez
Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox. Getty Images.
Advertisement
SURPRISE, SURPRISE, MOTHERFUCKER. THE KING IS BACK!
No, it's not Trevor Bauer. It's not a trade for a bonafide ace, either. But for 2021, I'm literally just looking for reasons to watch Red Sox baseball. That's how low my bar is. And in 2020, Martin Perez was a reason to tune in to watch Red Sox baseball. Not that I wasn't watching anyway, but there were many nights where sitting down to watch the Red Sox felt like preparing myself mentally for a colonoscopy. I don't want to feel like that this year, and Perez is a step in the right direction.
Beyond my sanity, let's talk about this move from a baseball perspective. The Red Sox declined Perez's option a couple of months back, and it appeared as though Perez was going to be one and done in Boston, which didn't make a ton of sense to me at the time. He's a left-handed pitcher, he gave the Red Sox decent enough innings, he was incredibly vocal about wanting to be in Boston, and he was incredibly affordable had Chaim Bloom decided to pick up his option. Now that we know he's coming back anyway, we can safely assume that he's coming back at an even more affordable rate, which is great.
For the folks out there who were tweeting, "Why would the Red Sox do this?" I think it's pretty obvious. Did you watch the Red Sox last year? We were a month into the season and they were calling guys who hadn't thrown in the big leagues since Jacoby Ellsbury was considered a good baseball player. They need arms. Martin Perez has two of them. He throws baseballs with one of them. Sign me up. With Eduardo Rodriguez returning to the rotation, Chris Sale joining the staff this summer, and Nathan Eovaldi still in the fold, the Red Sox don't need Perez to be a frontline guy. He's a backend of the rotation starter whose job it is to go out there and give the Red Sox a chance to win ballgames every fifth day. He can do that.
Also, since I'm sure people will be asking, I don't really care about the Red Sox not landing Corey Kluber. We talked about it on Section 10 before the news broke, and the dude was throwing 88-90 at his showcase for teams before he signed. He got $11 million out of it and hasn't pitched effectively at the big league level since 2018. He's a guy that's worth a roll of the dice if you can afford it not working out, but entering his age-35 season with his recent injury history, I don't think any interested teams should be kicking themselves for missing out on a gamble guy like Kluber at this stage of his career.
Advertisement
Anyways, welcome home, Martin Perez. Now go sign somebody like Michael Brantley, Marcell Ozuna or even Nelson Cruz just for shits and gigs.