The Red Sox have declined their $6MM club option on left-hander Martin Perez, per Alex Speier of The Boston Globe. He will instead receive a $500K buyout and head into free agency. Right-hander Garrett Richards will also have his $10MM option declined, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive. He gets a $1.5MM buyout on his way into the free agent pool.
The decision on Perez is largely unsurprising, given how things went for him in 2021. He posted mediocre results over the first few months of the season and was eventually bumped to a bullpen role for the playoff stretch. In 22 starts, the last of which was August 5th, he threw 100 innings with an ERA of 4.77, 19.1% strikeout rate and 7.4% walk rate. After moving to the bullpen, he logged 14 innings in 14 games with similar results, as he had an ERA of 4.50, strikeout rate of 18.8% and 4.7% walk rate. Perez also pitched three postseason innings for the Red Sox, but they didn’t go well, as he allowed six hits, four walks and four earned runs, without tallying a strikeout.
Despite that meager showing, Perez could garner some interest for a job at the back of a rotation or a swing role. Although he has a lengthy track record, he’s still relatively young, turning 31 in April. The lack of strikeouts have always been a part of his numbers and that hasn’t stopped him from having productive seasons in the past. He could help a team soak up some innings without a huge financial commitment.
As for Richards, he also made 22 starts but eventually got bumped into a bullpen role, just like Perez. His last start was August 8th, just a few days after his teammate’s. In those starts, he logged 110 1/3 innings with an ERA of 5.22, strikeout rate of 17.2% and 9.5% walk rate. After moving into a relief role, things seemed to greatly improve for him, as explored by MLBTR’s Steve Adams in September. At that time, Richards had thrown 20 2/3 innings out of the bullpen with an ERA of 0.87, a 29.4 percent strikeout rate, a 9.4 percent walk rate and a 48.1 percent ground-ball rate. However, his final few appearances weren’t great and his ERA as a reliever shot up to 3.42. Richards made one postseason appearance but was removed from the ALDS roster with a hamstring strain that ultimately ended his season.
He will make for an interesting wildcard option on the free agent market this year. He’s now far removed from his best stretch as a starter, which came in 2013-2015, but he showed flashes of potentially being an effective reliever, albeit in a fairly small sample size. He’ll turn 34 in May and seems to be in line for a short-term deal, whether it’s as a starter or reliever.
Easy decision is easy. He’s been terrible for years. Dumb acquisition to begin with.
He gave the Red Sox 176 innings of average pitching. That’s not terrible. You can do a lot worse for 2 years and $10 million.
True. Perez did what they needed him to do. I wouldn’t be surprised if they offer him a chance to come back at a significantly lower rate but i think its time he moves on
Yes, they needed a starting pitcher with experience and durability that could give the Sox starts/innings during the bridge years between 2019 and when they become competitive again. And they needed someone cheap to help reset the luxury tax. Both missions accomplished.
It’s just very unfortunate Cora used him in the ALCS for situations in which he never should have pitched.
And they need to remove Reliever ERA from the recordbooks. Perez is a perfect example of a guy who often allowed multiple inherited runners to score, but it never went against his ERA. I really hope he’s gone for good.
I’m calling the Angels or Orioles for Martin Perez in 2022.
IMO the Red Sox will not decline and resign like last year. They rotation is much deeper this year with Sale available from the beginning of the year, Eovaldi, Pivetta, and possibly Houck and Whitlock. They will also undoubtedly sign a FA starter as well (but more like a 3 or 4 rather than a 5th starter).
They never asked him to be anything more than an average starter. Not disappointed as I think they can do better moving forward. Was fine with having him.
Shocker…
Depending on the price, I wouldn’t mind Richards back as a reliever. He seemed to find himself once he went to the pen. A team can never have enough arms. Simply depends on the cost. Give him $1m guaranteed and another $2m if he makes the roster. $3m. if he can do better? let him.
Garret Richards pitched well in save situations (11 to 1 K/W, .182/.206/.212/.418) but it was a small sample size (5 games, 9.0 IP). I suspect there will be teams who look at those numbers.
I look for Richards to end up in Milwaukee. They have been linked to him for a couple of years now.
I know it says “more to come”, but as of this writing, neither players name is linked to their baseball reference page nor is their any further mention of Garrett Richards in the body. This article (and perhaps the author) needs a little seasoning (I can’t imagine this news is so hot it bypassed proper editing).
Masslive
“ The Boston Red Sox have declined right-handed pitcher Garrett Richards’ $10 million team option. They instead bought him out for $1.5 million.
The 33-year-old now becomes a free agent.
This decision comes as no surprise after Boston removed Richards from the starting rotation and demoted him to the bullpen Aug. 11.
He finished the 2021 season with a 7-8 record, 4.87 ERA, 4.72 FIP and 1.60 WHIP in 40 outings (22 starts). The opposition batted .289 against him in 136 ⅔ innings.”
Phillies need a swing man…open as a starter until Eflin comes back, then move to the BP….I’m open to Perez or Richards…
Perez is terrible, Richards isn’t much better
Richards will now have the entire offseason to get used to pitching without the sticky stuff and build on the improvements he made in the bullpen last year. I don’t see Richards signing with anyone to be a reliever unless there are absolutely zero opportunities to start out there for him which i doubt that there isn’t someone who wouldn’t give him the chance
All good news
That is a good sign that Wheelock and Houck might get shots at being back end starters. No matter what they served their purpose in a bridge year. Now it is a question if the Sox can pick up at least one top of the rotation starter and a C+ type veteran for the rotation.
For awhile I thought Richards might be another successful transition from rotation to bullpen like many in the past but he quickly came back to earth after a nice run.
I wonder if he would have come back down to earth so quickly had he not had all those starter innings on his arm? Just a thought, personally I’m glad he’s gone, Perez too