For some reason, the New York Mets gave Oliver Perez every chance possible to make the team’s Opening Day roster this year. Some people may even say that there are 12 million reasons why the team did it.
Perez started spring training with a chance to make the Mets starting rotation. After just a few outings, it was more than obvious that this would not occur. However, instead of cutting Perez at that point, the team gave him another opportunity. Perez would have a chance to make the Mets as a reliever.
This also went poorly.
Perez struggled on the mound and continued to allow runners to reach base. His velocity also never returned to what it had previously been. Perez could not throw a 90 mph fastball. Without this ability, he could not be successful. His control problems also continued to manifest themselves as he walked eight batters in just 9.2 innings.
As poorly as Perez pitched this spring, he actually improved upon his ERA from spring training last year. He had a 8.38 ERA this spring. This obviously was not the improvement that the team was looking for, though.
Sandy Alderson announced today that the team has come to a decision about Perez. They have decided to cut him and move on. In addition to the news last week that the Mets were cutting Luis Castillo, fans are definitely happy. They only question that they may have is why it took so long for these players to be cut.
The team’s actions are showing that they are only going to put the best 25 players on the Opening Day roster. This is something that the team has not done in the past.
While there are certainly still concerns, think Carlos Beltran’s knee and the second base battle, the team should have stability moving forward.
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