(Perez, shown in a pose all too familiar to Mets fans)
I realize that’s a clumsy headline above, but it narrowly beat “Here’s Your 2012 Comeback Player Of The Year”. Seattle summoned LHP Oliver Perez from their PCL Tacoma affiliate yesterday, marking the former Mets/Pirates starter’s return to the big leagues after a disastrous 2010 campaign. “He was throwing the ball well in AAA,” Mariners skipper Eric Wedge told The Seattle Times’ Mason Kelly. “Obviously (he has) a lot of big-league experience, a high strikeout ratio from the left side. We felt like it was a good time to take a look at him.” And at 28-39, what does Wedge have to lose?
Perez, whose last major-league appearance was with the New York Mets on Oct. 3, 2010, signed a minor-league deal with the Mariners in January and was 2-2 with a save and a 4.65 earned-run average in 22 minor-league relief appearances for the Rainiers this season.
After spending the 2011 season with Class AA Harrisburg in the Washington Nationals’ minor-league system, Perez said he considered retiring before finding his fastball in the Mexican Winter League. “I started working hard,” Perez said. “My velocity is back and that’s got me very excited.”
“If you look at his years of experience and what he’s accomplished, he’s accomplished a great deal in the big leagues,” Wedge said. “But this is a different role for him. We feel like he’s made a good adjustment with it and it’s a good time to get him up here.”