The Red Sox continued including extra depth on Wednesday with the signing of Roberto Perez.
The veteran catcher has a minor league contract with an invitation to Major League camp. Should he make the big-league roster, he’ll earn a $1.4 million base wage.
Just 10 days away from his thirty fifth birthday, Perez has been round for fairly a while. The Puerto Rico native was first chosen out of highschool by the Los Angeles Dodgers within the twenty ninth spherical of the ’06 draft, however opted to not signal. Cleveland took him within the thirty third spherical two summers later, and he debuted with them in July ’14. He spent the primary eight seasons of his big-league profession in Cleveland, then performed 21 video games for Pittsburgh in ’22.
Perez was additionally a Red Sox goal final offseason, however selected the San Francisco Giants as an alternative. After making the workforce out of spring coaching, he performed 5 video games earlier than needing season-ending shoulder surgical procedure in early April.
Save for an surprising 24-homer season in ’19, the catcher has by no means been a robust offensive contributor; he’s a profession .207 common, .655 OPS hitter. He can, nevertheless, get on base, and owns a ten.9% stroll charge over his 10 years within the Majors.
Above all, Perez has been a superb defender. Among energetic gamers, he ranks first in caught-stealing share and twenty eighth in defensive Wins Above Replacement. He received Wilson’s MLB Defensive Player of the Year in ’19 and back-to-back Gold Gloves with Cleveland in ’19 and ’20.
Connor Wong was Boston’s main catcher this season, beginning 105 video games to Reese McGuire’s 51, and each are at the moment slated to be Boston’s tandem once more subsequent season. Pérez will probably have have the same function to Jorge Alfaro, who had two stints with the Red Sox in ’23, however spent the overwhelming majority of his time within the group in Triple-A Worcester. Coincidentally, Alfaro and the Chicago Cubs got here to settlement on Wednesday night, additionally for a minor-league take care of an invitation to spring coaching.
The addition of Perez additionally means that the Red Sox are not excited about Martín Maldonado, longtime Houston Astros catcher who’s at the moment a free agent and shut with Alex Cora.
Source: www.bostonherald.com