Headlines

  • Red Sox Place Hunter Dobbins On 15-Day IL Due To ACL Tear
  • Astros Promote Brice Matthews
  • Red Sox Likely To Activate Alex Bregman Tomorrow
  • Phillies Reportedly Targeting Controllable Relievers
  • Yankees Prioritizing Pitching, Also Searching For Infield Help
  • Orioles Trade Bryan Baker To Rays
  • Previous
  • Next
Register
Login
  • Hoops Rumors
  • Pro Football Rumors
  • Pro Hockey Rumors

MLB Trade Rumors

Remove Ads
  • Home
  • Teams
    • AL East
      • Baltimore Orioles
      • Boston Red Sox
      • New York Yankees
      • Tampa Bay Rays
      • Toronto Blue Jays
    • AL Central
      • Chicago White Sox
      • Cleveland Guardians
      • Detroit Tigers
      • Kansas City Royals
      • Minnesota Twins
    • AL West
      • Houston Astros
      • Los Angeles Angels
      • Oakland Athletics
      • Seattle Mariners
      • Texas Rangers
    • NL East
      • Atlanta Braves
      • Miami Marlins
      • New York Mets
      • Philadelphia Phillies
      • Washington Nationals
    • NL Central
      • Chicago Cubs
      • Cincinnati Reds
      • Milwaukee Brewers
      • Pittsburgh Pirates
      • St. Louis Cardinals
    • NL West
      • Arizona Diamondbacks
      • Colorado Rockies
      • Los Angeles Dodgers
      • San Diego Padres
      • San Francisco Giants
  • About
    • MLB Trade Rumors
    • Tim Dierkes
    • Writing team
    • Advertise
    • Archives
  • Contact
  • Tools
    • 2025 Trade Deadline Outlook Series
    • 2025-26 MLB Free Agent List
    • Contract Tracker
    • Transaction Tracker
    • Agency Database
  • NBA/NFL/NHL
    • Hoops Rumors
    • Pro Football Rumors
    • Pro Hockey Rumors
  • App
  • Chats
Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Diamondbacks To Select Oliver Perez, Designate Caleb Baragar

By Steve Adams | April 6, 2022 at 1:24pm CDT

The D-backs have selected the contract of veteran left-handed reliever Oliver Perez and, in a corresponding roster move, designated fellow southpaw Caleb Baragar for assignment, according to the team’s transactions page.

Perez, 40, joined the D-backs on a minor league deal on March 21 and has logged 3 1/3 scoreless innings with just one hit allowed thus far during Cactus League play. This will mark his second stint with the D-backs, for whom he also pitched in 2014-15.

Perez has spent the past four seasons in Cleveland, pitching to a combined 2.57 ERA with a 28.5% strikeout rate against a 6.8% walk rate over the life of 94 2/3 innings. Only 3 2/3 of those innings came in 2021, however. Perez was cut loose early in the year, and he spent the rest of the season pitching with los Toros de Tijuana in the Mexican League. He’d been slated to return to los Toros in 2022, signing there during the lockout and announcing his intention to retire after the season. However, once it became clear that the season could get underway only about a week later than originally scheduled, Perez reversed course and signed on with a Major League organization.

It still seems as though this could be the final year of a lengthy and largely successful Major League career for Perez, who had a roller-coaster run as a starting pitcher early in his career but reinvented himself as a reliever in his 30s. Since moving to the ’pen on a full-time basis in 2012, Perez carries a 3.45 ERA in 350 innings spread across five different organizations.

Turning to the 27-year-old Baragar, this marks his second DFA of the spring. A ninth-round pick of the Giants back in 2016, he’s seen Major League time with San Francisco in each of the past two seasons, pitching to a combined 2.78 ERA with an 18.8% strikeout rate, a 9.1% walk rate and a 21.7% ground-ball rate.

Despite that strong bottom-line run prevention, Baragar has now been designated for assignment both by the Giants and by the D-backs, who claimed him off waivers last month. Fielding-independent marks don’t paint as rosy a picture as Baragar’s more rudimentary ERA, due largely to his pedestrian K-BB% and an extremely low home-run rate — the latter of which doesn’t mesh particularly well with his sky-high 58.1% fly-ball rate.

Over the past two seasons, nearly 14% of the fly-balls put in play by Major League hitters have gone for home runs, whereas Baragar has seen just 5.3% of his flies clear the fence. Playing his home games at the spacious Oracle Park and inducing pop-ups at an above-average rate have both surely helped him, but it nevertheless seems inevitable that he’s in for some regression with regard to that minuscule homer-to-flyball ratio.

Baragar, who’ll turn 28 this weekend, has multiple minor league options remaining, so he could be looked at by another club as a possible depth option in the bullpen. He’s been tagged for an 8.01 ERA and surrendered nine home runs through 30 1/3 innings in a hitter-friendly Triple-A setting, but he carries a 4.06 ERA and respectable strikeout and walk percentages in 421 minor league innings on the whole. The D-backs will have a week to trade him or attempt to pass him through waivers.

Share 0 Retweet 4 Send via email0

Arizona Diamondbacks Transactions Caleb Baragar Oliver Perez

Tigers Announce Several Transactions, Finalize Opening Day Roster
Main
Jordan Hicks To Begin Season In Cardinals’ Rotation
View Comments (18)
Post a Comment

18 Comments

  1. Milwaukee-2208

    3 years ago

    Oliver Perez is still active? Wow! Thought he was done years ago

    3
    Reply
    • Cohn Joppolella

      3 years ago

      Life finds a way….

      Reply
      • User 4245925809

        3 years ago

        Maybe having to play in that wonderful place Tijuana for a bit last year gave him the drive needed to make an MLB roster this spring.

        Reply
        • Polish Hammer

          3 years ago

          At 40 years old going home to Mexico to play ball gives him the drive needed to do what’s he’s been doing his whole life? He had the drive last year, the dumb mlb rules drove out the LOOGYs from the game.

          4
          Reply
  2. AshamedMethGoat

    3 years ago

    The bottom of the NL West is gonna be godawful this season. Between the directionless Rockies and rebuilding Dbacks, the other 3 teams will have close to 40 “gimme” games in division. Wouldn’t at all be surprised to see the Dodgers win close to 110 while the Padres and Giants go for 95+ (assuming the Giants don’t regress as much as expected).

    1
    Reply
    • SpendNuttinWinNuttin

      3 years ago

      The Rockies finished 5 games behind Padres, 2 behind Mets, 3 games better than last years Cubs. I’m not sure they’re this bottom dweller everyone makes them out to be. They only really lost Gray and Story but got Bryant and Grichuk. The organization is awful, constantly questionable moves, but their roster doesn’t scream 100+ losses like Arizona, Pittsburgh, Baltimore…

      6
      Reply
      • PiratesFan1981

        3 years ago

        @SpendNuttinWinNuttin Normally I find fault with many of your post and biased opinions of Pittsburgh. But this time your right. 52-110 for the Pirates seems about right. Growing pains for some younger players and weeding out the remaining Huntington left overs, seems to be the course. Much like last year, there will be a cycle of players and some releases. It’s going to be a setup for a more productive year next year.

        I expect you to bring up again, “Nutting will not spend to help the club.” We’ve gone round for round and the Pirates are cycling through their prospects right now to find a winning formula. Even I wouldn’t invest 50-60 million (even with Art Moreno bank account) into an unfinished product. Just to be another Phillies or Mets organization trying to cut corners but comes up empty.

        Reply
  3. SpendNuttinWinNuttin

    3 years ago

    Let’s goooooo Oliver!

    1
    Reply
  4. dylan1g

    3 years ago

    This guy will not pass through the Mets. They terribly need left-handed relief pitching.

    Reply
    • phenomenalajs

      3 years ago

      Nah, they’ll roll with Shreve. I don’t see them bringing anyone else aboard unless they decide to put deGrom on the 60-day.

      Reply
  5. Robrock30

    3 years ago

    Wow Oliver Perez that is a name from the Past. The Mets couldn’t get him to go to the Minors as he had too much service Time and he refused. How is he still pitching?

    1
    Reply
  6. johnnieleeboo

    3 years ago

    Has Fangraphs calculated how many days Service Time Oliver can afford before he owes tax on his Social Security?

    Reply
  7. T.T.P.

    3 years ago

    Baragar was really good prior to the sticky substance crackdown… unfortunately it seems like he was a spider tack merchant

    1
    Reply
  8. PiratesFan1981

    3 years ago

    I remember when he was tried out at a starter and some believe he could be. Oh that was the days we saw pen arms as starters in Pittsburgh. Kris Benson was another one. The system was so bad that you couldn’t give away the players. Better days…..

    Reply
  9. HBan22

    3 years ago

    Oliver Perez’s first season of professional ball was in 1999 as a 17 year old. Really cool to see him still pitching, has to be one of the last players left in MLB that played in pro ball in the 90’s.

    1
    Reply
    • Rexwood

      3 years ago

      AZ is a subsidiary of AARP

      Reply
  10. No Soup For Yu!

    3 years ago

    I read “21.7% ground-ball rate” and thought for sure that had to be a typo. Somehow, it is not. In the last 10 years, among pitchers with at least 40 innings, only two others have had a ground ball rate lower than that.

    Reply
  11. Orioles Fan

    3 years ago

    Here’s hoping the A’s pickup Caleb. Stats look pretty decent and could be a solid addition to the BP.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Please login to leave a reply.

Log in Register

    Top Stories

    Red Sox Place Hunter Dobbins On 15-Day IL Due To ACL Tear

    Astros Promote Brice Matthews

    Red Sox Likely To Activate Alex Bregman Tomorrow

    Phillies Reportedly Targeting Controllable Relievers

    Yankees Prioritizing Pitching, Also Searching For Infield Help

    Orioles Trade Bryan Baker To Rays

    Yankees Release DJ LeMahieu

    Trevor Williams To Undergo UCL Surgery

    Nationals Fire PBO Mike Rizzo, Manager Dave Martinez

    Brewers Activate Brandon Woodruff

    Clarke Schmidt Expected To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

    Bobby Jenks Passes Away

    Braves Release Alex Verdugo

    Top 40 Trade Candidates For The 2025 Deadline

    Rays Reinstate Ha-Seong Kim

    Yankees Have Shown Interest In Ryan McMahon

    Royals Interested In Bryan Reynolds

    Rangers Option Josh Jung

    Kevin Pillar Announces Retirement

    Braves Place Spencer Schwellenbach On IL With Elbow Fracture

    Recent

    Royals Receiving Interest In Catching Prospects

    J.C. Escarra Drawing Trade Attention

    Cristian Javier Begins Rehab Assignment

    Multiple Teams Showing Interest In DJ LeMahieu

    Rafael Devers Suffering From Disk Injury In Lower Back

    Mets’ Dedniel Nunez To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

    Trade Deadline Outlook: Seattle Mariners

    Reds Activate Jake Fraley, Option Christian Encarnacion-Strand

    Red Sox Place Hunter Dobbins On 15-Day IL Due To ACL Tear

    Cubs Select Brooks Kriske

    MLBTR Newsletter - Hot stove highlights in your inbox, five days a week

    Latest Rumors & News

    Latest Rumors & News

    • Sandy Alcantara Rumors
    • Luis Robert Rumors
    • Alex Bregman Rumors

     

    Trade Rumors App for iOS and Android App Store Google Play

    MLBTR Features

    MLBTR Features

    • Remove Ads, Support Our Writers
    • Front Office Originals
    • Front Office Fantasy Baseball
    • MLBTR Podcast
    • Trade Deadline Outlook Series
    • 2025-26 MLB Free Agent List
    • Contract Tracker
    • Transaction Tracker
    • Extension Tracker
    • Agency Database
    • MLBTR On Twitter
    • MLBTR On Facebook
    • Team Facebook Pages
    • How To Set Up Notifications For Breaking News
    • Hoops Rumors
    • Pro Football Rumors
    • Pro Hockey Rumors

    Rumors By Team

    • Angels Rumors
    • Astros Rumors
    • Athletics Rumors
    • Blue Jays Rumors
    • Braves Rumors
    • Brewers Rumors
    • Cardinals Rumors
    • Cubs Rumors
    • Diamondbacks Rumors
    • Dodgers Rumors
    • Giants Rumors
    • Guardians Rumors
    • Mariners Rumors
    • Marlins Rumors
    • Mets Rumors
    • Nationals Rumors
    • Orioles Rumors
    • Padres Rumors
    • Phillies Rumors
    • Pirates Rumors
    • Rangers Rumors
    • Rays Rumors
    • Red Sox Rumors
    • Reds Rumors
    • Rockies Rumors
    • Royals Rumors
    • Tigers Rumors
    • Twins Rumors
    • White Sox Rumors
    • Yankees Rumors

    Navigation

    • Sitemap
    • Archives
    • RSS/Twitter Feeds By Team

    MLBTR INFO

    • Advertise
    • About
    • Commenting Policy
    • Privacy Policy

    Connect

    • Contact Us
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • RSS Feed

    MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

    Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

    hide arrows scroll to top

    Register

    Desktop Version | Switch To Mobile Version