July 6: The Eagles have announced the signing. Perez will earn $400K total — $300K in salary plus a $100K signing bonus — for the remainder of the season, per Jee-ho Yoo of the Yonhap News Agency.
July 4, 11:49 am: Pérez is indeed being granted his release to sign with the Eagles, he confirms to Adam McCalvy of MLB.com (Twitter thread).
8:35 am: The Hanwha Eagles of the Korea Baseball Organization announced they’ve released first baseman Ryon Healy (h/t to Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News). Utilityman Hernán Pérez is among the candidates to replay Healy on the roster, the Eagles confirmed.
The Eagles signed Healy to a one-year deal with an $800K guarantee last December. The hope was the 29-year-old would settle in as a middle-of-the-order force, but that didn’t prove to be the case. Through 268 plate appearances, Healy hit .257/.306/.394 with seven home runs.
Despite the underwhelming showing in the KBO, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Healy attract some interest from MLB teams on minor league deals if he’s now set to return to the United States. He appeared in the big leagues with the A’s, Mariners and Brewers between 2016-20, compiling an overall league average .261/.298/.450 line through 1606 trips to the plate. Healy broke in to the majors as a third baseman but saw increasing action at first base later in his big league tenure and was used exclusively at first with the Eagles.
Pérez signed a minor league deal with the Brewers in May and is with their Triple-A affiliate in Nashville. He’s gotten off to a fantastic .357/.396/.536 start across 91 plate appearances with the Sounds. Milwaukee has since acquired Willy Adames to play shortstop, though. That bumped Luis Urías to third base, which has coincided with an uptick in the latter’s offensive production. Second baseman Kolten Wong is currently on the 10-day injured list, but that’s expected to be a short-term stint, and utilityman Jace Peterson has been fantastic off the bench. It’s possible the Milwaukee front office doesn’t see an immediate role available for Pérez, regardless of his performance in Nashville.
If Pérez does wind up signing with the Eagles, he’ll assuredly land a better salary than he’s currently earning in the minors. The 30-year-old has appeared in the majors in each of the past ten seasons, including a ten-game stint with the Nationals earlier this year. Through 1846 plate appearances (the majority of which came in a previous stint with the Brewers), Pérez has hit .250/.280/.352 (72 wRC+) while appearing at every defensive position other than catcher.
I always liked Hernan Perez’ Game for what it’s worth.
They are mistaken if they believe Pérez will provide more offense than Healy.
Pirates should sign Ryon. Even if he produces the same as overseas, he would be 3rd in homeruns and 4th in batting average.
Probably shouldn’t assume he’d produce the same because people typically treat those leagues as an AAA type environment
I’d take Him over Nogowski
You’re wrong, Healy is absolute trash. Watched him in Seattle, he’s not worth a 40 man spot much less a 25 man
Not me! Nogowski 2-4 last night with a Rbi , 3 runs scored and a walk
@Baseball 1600…the Pirates are a AAA environment.
Minor leaguers are exploited and Mets Owner is imitating Sgt Schultz LOL
nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/ny-mets-minor…
Expect Healy to catch on with another Korean team
presuming he cleared waivers he is ineligible to do so this year.
He hit 257 there plus all foreign player spots are filled up so no back to AAA
Healy has never learned to take a walk. Just refuses to incorporate any plate discipline in his approach whatsoever.
I remember when Healy broke out as a rookie with the A’s, and then they soon traded him, it gave me eerie Josh Donaldson vibes. Boy was I wrong…
Derick Dietrich will be signed For this spot I’ll bet
When with the brewers he always produced! I called Perez Player as he always came to play where ever they put him!
Ryon Healy always gave me a Shea Hillenbrand vibe so I wasn’t surprised he failed in the KBO. The only surprise is that it took so long for Hanuwa to release him.